The research seeks to give engineers the tools to think about legal and political issues surrounding technology so that the engineers can have context to create better, ethical innovations. Despite their increasing involvement in our modern state, many engineers/inventors and technology companies have difficulty in assessing the societal and legal impact their inventions can have. The tools the research seeks to provide include: 1. Theoretical understanding of the state, 2. Law’s relationship to technology, 3.The failure modes of society.