Hype and cultural imaginary in law and technology

This chapter examines hype and the cultural imaginary in law and technology. It begins by considering the idea of ‘hype’ and particularly the phenomenon of hype in funding technological innovation. The second section identifies how hype has infused the cultural imaginary of law and technology. Like the technology entrepreneur who hypes the market to the possibilities and payoffs from their innovating, the law and technology scholar hypes the legal profession, policy lawmakers, and the public to sell the need for ‘law to catch-up with technology’. The third addresses the hype of revealing that law and technology is a hyped discourse, suggesting that this does not disclose a need to double down on rationality and engagement with the real. Rather, it urges law and technology scholars to take the speculative and emotional effects of the cultural imaginary seriously to better legislate for desirable human technological futures.