Continuing the discussion from Discussion: Exploring Basic Income as a Pathway to Sustainability and Poverty Alleviation, Dario has chimed in on this subject:
He is right, a UBI may be necessary but it is far from sufficient. We sure do need to think much bigger. UBI as been conceived by some advocates (who are far from needing it themselves), like Elon Musk and Andrew Yang, as “the solution”, but as Dario correctly identifies, that is not enough. Dario does not “have the answer” (do any of us?) but he does correctly identify it’s a conversation the world need to have, and sooner rather than later.
And while I’m at it, Altman’s idea of "universal basic compute’, well, that does not “compute” to me. The solution is not about sharing compute, it’s about sharing to the surplus of production. You know, Marx.
In the modern vernacular we don’t need to utter the unspeakable, but instead simply acknowledge that whatever we do, it must be predicated on mediating access to the fundamentals of value creation; compute, resources and energy. Put another way, it is the value created by the transformation of resources, with (soon to be free) energy, subject to “unlimited compute” (and not predicated on human labour to a significant degree) that we need to deliberately decide to share in new ways that are not related to labour, and which most human beings will agree is “fair”.
The ensuing debate will long and painful, but it is the solution to this problem that humanity must find if it is to create the consensus required for our species to survive beyond a few more generations.
can’t believe I just said that. I really want there to be a better idea but I haven’t come across anything yet. Anyone? No, seriously. Anyone? Please not UBI…
