6 - The Limitations and Legal Implications of Autonomous Organizations

Summary

This chapter outlines several ways that autonomous organizations will put pressure on existing law and will perhaps require accommodations from the law in the future. In particular, legal concepts like fraud that require “intent” may become less workable as more legal action is taken by systems that lack the capacity for intent. Moreover, if perpetually autonomous organizations become more commonplace, the law will need to pay attention to the possible drift between their initial operating agreements and future states of affairs, whether because of the possibility of “hacking” or simply because general circumstances have unexpectedly changed.