From clay to digital: a new form of contract

As we enter a new year, reflect for a moment how much (and how little) contracts have changed over the last two millennia.

1. The Medium: Think about how contracts were written in the past. Long ago, people used clay tablets, papyrus, or wood. Today, our tools and technology mean that we type them up on computers and store them digitally.

2. Signing a Contract: In old times, sealing a contract with wax and a unique stamp was common. Then, we moved to writing signatures by hand. Now, we often use digital signatures – just a click or a tap on a screen.

3. The Role of Laws: Over time, laws around contracts became more formal and structured. This shift helped in dealing with more complex trade and social interactions.

Contracts Today: Complex but Unchanging Records

Today, we have many more contracts than before, and they’re often longer and more complicated. Despite these changes, each contract is like a snapshot, capturing an agreement at a specific moment. The unique nature of each contract and the varying situations they cover can make it tough to analyze them on a large scale and learn from past success or failure.

AI – enabling the contract of the future

As in the past, many changes will be a direct or indirect result of advances in technology. In the case of contracts, we should ask fundamental questions that go to the heart of the way agreements are formed and managed. Here are three areas where Artificial Intelligence may lead to radically different approaches and expectations of value.

1. Emotion-Responsive Contracts: In the future, contracts might include emotion-responsive clauses, thanks to advances in AI and neuroscience. These contracts would adapt their terms based on the emotional state of the parties involved. For instance, if a party is under distress or extreme happiness, certain clauses could automatically adjust to ensure fair and ethical dealings. This would require sophisticated emotional recognition technology, possibly even direct neural interfacing. Experiments in this area have been running for several years – for example, AI can predict the likely reaction to a specific clause and the way it is worded.
2. Quantum Entanglement Contracts: Leveraging the properties of quantum mechanics, contracts could be established where the terms are interconnected through quantum entanglement. The fulfillment or breach of a clause in one location could instantaneously affect the contract terms in another location, regardless of the distance. This would be a groundbreaking way to enforce immediate compliance and could revolutionize international agreements or complex multi-party contracts.
3. Holographic Lifetime Contracts: Imagine a contract not as a document, but as a holographic entity that accompanies you for its duration. This AI-powered hologram would not only remind you of your contractual obligations but also adapt and provide advice based on changing circumstances. It could negotiate on-the-fly adjustments with the holographic entities of other contract parties, creating a dynamic, living agreement that evolves over time.

Far-fetched as some of these ideas may seem, it is essential we remember that as recently as 40 years ago contracts and legal professionals would have dismissed the idea that contracts could be developed and stored electronically or that digital signatures could exist. So as we start a new year, it is a great time to open our minds and start to re-imagine the purpose of our contracts and the benefits that could flow from a fresh approach.