Idea · carried by 1 source
Infosstructure
Mead's coined term for the institutional, legal, and regulatory framework needed to enable AI and information technology to deliver on their promise — analogous to “infrastructure” (physical bridges and roads) but for the digital age. The argument: we built physical infrastructure brilliantly, but we lack the equivalent “infosstructure” for the information revolution.
Where it comes from
Mead coins this term during his conversation with Patrick O'Shaughnessy on Invest Like the Best (highlights/walter-russell-mead-world-order), contrasting it explicitly with physical infrastructure.
How it works
- Infrastructure = bridges, roads, physical stuff — the built environment that enabled industrial society
- Infosstructure = the institutional, legal, regulatory framework that can allow AI technology to deliver results
- We're good at infrastructure, bad at infosstructure — The American founders understood physical infrastructure (Homestead Act, transcontinental railroads). We've built highways and suburbs brilliantly. But we don't yet have the equivalent vision for the information age
- Infosstructure for healthcare — Getting AI to give better results to hospital patients is “incredibly complicated” and requires new regulatory and institutional frameworks
- Infosstructure for law — AI could transform the legal system, but that requires “a new kind of social imagination”
- The housing example — Tax benefits for companies enabling remote/hybrid work could expand the commuter radius from 40 to 75 miles. Since developable land goes up with the square of the radius, this geometrically expands housing supply — but requires new regulatory frameworks to work
America has always been great at physical infrastructure. The challenge now is building the equivalent “infosstructure” — the regulatory, legal, and institutional frameworks — for the information revolution. Without it, we have the technology but can't fully deploy it.