---
title: "General-purpose Computing Causes Regulatory Object Instability"
author: "Berg, C."
date: "2026-05-03"
url: "https://chrisberg.org/2026/05/general-purpose-computing-causes-regulatory-object-instability/"
type: "Working papers"
published_in: "Working paper, SSRN"
topics: "Red tape and regulation"
---

# General-purpose Computing Causes Regulatory Object Instability

*Available at [SSRN](https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=6697658).*

**Abstract:** Regulation is imposed on regulatory objects: persons, firms, transactions, products, services, infrastructures, duties, relationships and prohibited acts to which obligations and liabilities can attach. This paper argues that general-purpose computation creates a distinctive problem of regulatory-object construction and a hard limit on object-specific regulation of computable capabilities. Because computable capabilities can be copied, modified, self-hosted, forked and reimplemented across general-purpose infrastructure, the same regulated function can move between regulatory objects. The paper develops a predictive theory of regulatory-object stability: the regulable substrate of any activity is its non-computable fraction. For activities expressible in computational form, targeting the non-substitutable substrate is impossible without being overbroad.