In a contribution to a discussion at TechDirt on the implications of a new DRM system proposed for monitoring usage of Associated Press articles, James Boyle formulates a interesting hypothesis on the cultural bias against openness.

James Boyle:

“In my new book, The Public Domain I argue that we have a measurable cognitive bias against “openness” — I call it cultural agoraphobia, and I argue that it impedes us in understanding the creative potential, productive processes and forms of social organization that the web makes possible. The source of that bias (by which I mean a demonstrated tendency to ignore certain kinds of possibilities in a way that the data does not support) probably lies in the fact that most of our experiences with property come from physical goods — sandwiches that 1000 people cannot share, absent divine intervention, fields that might be overgrazed or underused if not subject to single entity control. Even digital natives still spend most of the hours of their day in a world in which goods are both “rival” and “excludable.” Reflexes picked up in that world tend to lead us astray when we are dealing with the kind of property that lives on networks. “Like astronauts brought up in gravity, our reflexes are poorly suited for free fall.” I would even argue that this cognitive bias, even more than industry capture of regulators, is one reason why our current intellectual property policy is so profoundly and utterly misguided. But its implications are wider still.

So far, this sounds similar to the standard technophilic critique of existing institutions — albeit with a behavioral psychology chaser. But it isn’t. Just because it’s a bias doesn’t mean it’s always wrong. It may be that, even once one discards the bias, there may be no immediately obvious way of carrying important social functions into the world of the Net. I don’t care where on the techno-optimist spectrum you are (It ranges from “get their eyeballs and their wallets will surely follow” to “the only alternative you seem to be proposing is Google ads, cover charges and lots of T-shirts.”) Unless you believe that markets spontaneously self-correct for everything (hint, check your IRA balance before you answer this question) you have to acknowledge that the problem that the AP is responding to may be our problem (how to pay for the kind of expensive investigative journalism that is a real boon to democracy and liberty) as well as their problem (how not to die in the immediate future.)

Don’t get me wrong. The world of the future will clearly have media that in some respects are far better than what we have today, even when measured against the most rigorous standards. I am pretty sure, in the world of 2020, pollution levels in Silicon Valley and school performance in Palo Alto will be covered with a wealth of data, expert systems, and interactive mapping in a way that would have seemed a dream in 1990. That will be true for most areas that have wealth, a wealth of data, and a highly educated citizenry with lots of personal liberty and strong personal and ethical reasons to be focused on a particular subject. It will be much less true for areas where those conditions do not hold true, particularly if you have a powerful in-group with strong reasons to want to keep the eyes of the world away. Twitter and the camera phone can do a lot. But they can provide neither the culture of professional journalism, nor the sustained effort and resources to develop a story over years. And there is an oft unnoticed corollary to the claim that the dinosaurs are clueless. It means they are unlikely to solve the problems themselves. Unless you think that markets and technologies spontaneously self-correct for everything, that leaves the rest of us.”