Presented by Willard Hurst as part of his course "Introduction to Modern American Legal History" at the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1978. Hurst discusses the government's involvement in science and technology. Government, not the private market, in the form of public collective action, should cure the preventable evils of society. Four factors influence the way law interacts with science and technology: the public's demand for immediate results, civil liberties for science, social cost accounting, and technology's chaotic impact on people. Hurst opens this lecture with the idea that the law should effectively exercise the monopoly of force in society. Technology weakens government's monopoly of force, because it creates an egalitarian society. Additionally, capital allows businesses to bypass the problems of immediate results (see Tape 33, Side 1) and look forward to the future when investing in science and technology. This leads into a discussion about the balance of power in society.
