Gone are the days when we would knowingly and explicitly decide to use some technology for a set period and in a specific setting, like entering the telephone booth to make a call or sitting down in front of the television. Now, very complex technology rather shapes our reality in a seamless manner and without us paying it much attention. An ordinary person in a developed society will for example have used space technologies maybe more than 5-6 times before lunchtime on a normal day... And how many people are aware of the principles of the law of outer space? Nevertheless, we order our taxi or perhaps even our breakfast through an app that uses positioning technology and use the same technology to find out how long it will take us to get to the next meeting and by which route, we access global news through satellites and communicate with people through a variety of technologies.
In addition to the exotic sounding idea that we use outer space technologies, we are all cyberspace participants. Most people may have heard the term cybersecurity, but many have only vague notions of what it means and who actively deals with it. Data protection is a phrase that is used a lot, but what the connection is with the boxes we tick to get access to services online is perhaps not clear. We do not like the idea that a lot is known about us and can potentially be abused, but we do like the services that facilitate our life or bring us into contact with interesting people - and business opportunities.
In the recent past most of us have come into contact with generative artificial intelligence (the most known actor being ChatGPT) and suddenly the 'thinking machine' of science-fiction seems to live in our own computer! In this colorful, fast-moving and even dramatic world, law is maybe not the first thing to come to mind when pondering the new society of today and what may come tomorrow. However, fortunately after a somewhat slow start, society has realized that law has to play a part in shaping modern society. This includes legislative work in the broad sense, where expertise of how law and technology interact is needed and there are a multitude of opportunities for people with such expertise, to work with technology firms (as self-regulation and codes of conduct of firms are of growing importance), international organizations or governments - or civil society organizations and pressure groups. The legal side also includes work on implementing law, whether as corporate lawyers, in law firms or in the judiciary. In addition, there are more and more employments that mix the knowledge of technology and of law, where the interdisciplinarity of studies continues also in the workplace.
The new speaking, thinking, singing-dancing robot that will be the next big thing, will hopefully be born already with its legal status and questions of responsibility well settled - thanks to the new generation of law and technology lawyers!