This chapter introduces the book, defines key terms, and outlines the book’s scope and contribution. It explains the enthusiasm governments have for technology, and analyzes government automation against administrative law values of transparency, accountability, rationality, participation, and efficiency. The chapter then outlines the governance framework of the book, and sets out its structure.

This chapter addresses the social barriers to implementing the technical solutions to climate change - enabling the reader to recongnise that the threats we face cannot be solved in a social vacuum. It challenges the narrative of the traditional growth economy and widening levels of inequality. It looks at the mechanisms of the legal system, the role of education and technology, and also highlights the three key areas of politics, media and business which will be explored in further detail in later chapters.

This chapter looks at the most recent climate science and starkly sets out the severity of the problems ahead. It gives the reader all the knowledge needed to broadly understand the critical issues of our day from a technical perspective, including systems of production and consumption for energy and food, biodiversity loss, pollution (including plastics), disease threats and population levels. It then looks at ways in which we can technically transfer to a sustainable way of living.

The third industrial revolution saw the creation of computers and an increased use of technology in industry and households. We are now in the fourth industrial revolution: cyber, with advances in artificial intelligence, automation and the internet of things. The third and fourth revolutions have had a large impact on health care, shaping how health and social care are planned, managed and delivered, as well as supporting wellness and the promotion of health. This growth has seen the advent of the discipline of health informatics with several sub-specialty areas emerging over the past two decades. Informatics is used across primary care, allied health, community care and dentistry, with technology supporting the primary health care continuum. This chapter explores the development of health informatics as a discipline and how health care innovation, technology, governance and the workforce are supporting digital health transformation.

The right to freedom of thought is enshrined in Article 32(1) of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution. This right aims to facilitate democratic discourse, critical thinking, and societal progress. However, despite its constitutional protection, the right remains underdeveloped statutorily, in judicial decisions, and in academic literature. Ambiguity persists in defining and qualifying violations of this right, as no court has thus far engaged in a comprehensive analysis to establish its content and scope. Instead, it has been intertwined with discussions on the scope, application, and limitations of freedoms of expression, religion, belief, and opinion, being regarded as the essential inner element necessary for the exercise of these freedoms. This chapter examines the scope of the right to freedom of thought in Kenya and the importance of recognising it as an independent right, despite its interconnectedness with the aforementioned freedoms. Ensuring this recognition allows citizens to develop their own set of ideals and belief systems without facing coercion to disclose their thoughts, punishment for holding certain thoughts, impermissible alteration of their thoughts, or a lack of an enabling environment to hold and express their thoughts. To establish this, the chapter explores the historical and legal framework of the right to freedom of thought in Kenya and examines its interplay with related constitutional rights such as freedom of expression, belief, religion, and opinion. It addresses contemporary issues, including the impact of technology, surveillance, and cancel culture on freedom of thought. Recommendations are then made on its applicability and how courts and academics can navigate the complexities surrounding its scope, content, and limitations.

DLT and cryptoassets are a digital solution to the perennial issue of how to establish a single source of truth. Because digital data entries can easily be altered or copied, we have relied on trusted third parties to keep a master copy of any digital asset registry – until DLT enabled digital equivalents to physical cash and bearer instruments. Instead of a trusted record keeper, DLT relies on a distributed network of nodes that each hold a copy of the ledger. The data are typically stored in a time-stamped sequence of blocks, i.e., a blockchain. Different types of consensus mechanisms exist to keep each copy of the ledger synchronised and to prevent malicious actors from altering the registered information. This technology is democratising the privilege of running a trusted asset registry, thus facilitating new business models in so-called decentralised finance (DeFi) which emulate conventional financial processes with software replacing middlemen, such as banks, depositories, and exchanges. This has resulted in so-called token offerings and more than 10,000 different cryptoassets worth more than USD 1 trillion in aggregate.

This chapter deals with the physical and tangible aspects of the worldwide circulation of royal officials and exposes how the Spanish Empire developed an unheard of system of global mobility. After evaluating the dramatic changes in how people thought of distance, it sketches some of the major patterns of Spanish mobility and the new technologies that enabled such movement. This allows for discussing some novel material representations of the globe and the original worldly imaginings.

In the epilogue, the editors reflect on the series of conversations. They revisit the definition of ‘legal innovation’ and what they have learned about it through the discussions. Their perspective on legal innovation is twofold. On the one hand, technology transforms the reality of law and fundamentally changes the way we access and experience law and justice. On the other hand, law evolves, adapts to changes in society, but can also facilitate and implement innovation. They conclude by considering what it takes to initiate legal innovation.