Why Should Lawyers Care About Schrodinger's Cat?

Schrodinger's Cat is probably the most famous thought experiment in the history of, well, thought experiments.

It poses that -- after being placed in a sealed box with a flask of poison and a radioactive source -- the cat will be alive and dead at the same time. Theoretical physicists love this stuff, but Futurama makes it much more fun.

It basically sets up the moment when reality collapses into one possibility or another. So why should non-theoretical physicist lawyers care?

One Possibility

When it comes to the future, the possibilities may seem endless. But the law is more black-and-white than that.

You're guilty or not guilty; there is no in between. It's like saying you're half-pregnant; the law just doesn't work that way.

In legal tech, the future seems almost certain. Robots will take your law job; blockchain will be infused into smart contracts; and cyberpirates will continue to raid and pillage.

Well, maybe not all of that. But this is literary license at work here; it's not theoretical physics.

The Other Possibility

While lawyers look to one future for legal tech, another is unfolding. Robots will go into the sex industry; Bitcoin will become the exclusive currency; and cyberpirates will hack it all.

That does not make legal tech a Schroedinger's cat, however. Classically, the industry would have to be both alive and dead at the same time.

Some attorneys may feel that way, especially when the internet or their computers crash. Even though that's what practitioners really care about, it doesn't really count in quantum mechanics or the little things in the law.

Or does it?

Related Resources:

• Audit Now for the Future Cloud (FindLaw's Technologist)
• Net Neutrality on the Horizon, or Not (FindLaw's Technologist)
• BigLaw Tech Incubators Continue Growing (FindLaw's Technologist)