New technology always produces spillover effects. Experts attempt to anticipate and accommodate spillovers. In the parlance of contract law, unintended third party beneficiaries experience positive spillovers. Importantly, note that unintended third parties lack the legal standing to sue concerning either the addition or the deletion of a spillover unless and until the unintended third party has vested a legally recognized right. However, vesting is legally impossible in many circumstances.
Negative spillovers are the province of tort law, but only when the spillover is unreasonable.
Thus, tort law will characterize fewer negative spillovers as unreasonable. In effect, a reasonable person would expect technological evolution and its spillovers. What rules govern a transaction are dependent upon who is the standard for the reasonable person. Neither the judiciary nor the legislatures have been consistent in evaluating new technologies from the perspective of the expert or of the ordinary person. Once new technology is unleashed upon broader vistas, the divergent expectations are brought into conflict.