Like most academics, I veer back and forth between conversations among IP law colleagues and conversations in which I explain what I do to everyone else. The two styles of discourse usually don’t resemble each other much. At last, however, I seem to have stumbled onto a shorthand that works in both communities. Last weekend a non-IP, non-law professional colleague asked about my current paper project. I said that I’m working on a theory of information policy. She looked blank and repeated her question, more or less. I said, “It’s about metaphor.” Ah, she replied. Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.
Translation
Posted by Mike Madison · February 5th, 2007 · 5 Comments
Tags: Law & Technology
5 responses so far ↓
1 greglas // Feb 6, 2007 at 7:52 am
Perhaps most articles are more along the lines of Picard and the Sheliak.
http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/The_Ensigns_of_Command
“I formally request third party arbitration…. I name the Grizellas to arbitrate. Unfortunately they are currently in their hibernation cycle.”
2 Bruce Boyden // Feb 6, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Temba, his arms wide.
3 Mike Madison // Feb 6, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Bruce – The new paper is a better working out of ideas that appeared first, in preliminary form, in Metaphor, Objects, and Commodities
54 Cleve. St. L. Rev. 141 (2006) (with my colleague George Taylor). Mike
4 Bruce Boyden // Feb 6, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
Greg, I agree entirely. The Sheliak are the epitome of lawyers.
5 greglas // Feb 7, 2007 at 6:40 am
Bruce> Sokath, his eyes uncovered!
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!
Mirab, with sails unfurled!