Let’s say computers come for most of our jobs. This may not seem likely at the moment; computer scientists and economists offer wildly varying ideas for how deeply automation will affect future employment.
But for the sake of argument, imagine that within two or three decades we’ll have morphed into the Robotic States of America.
In Robot America, most manual laborers will have been replaced by herculean bots. Truck drivers, cabbies, delivery workers and airline pilots will have been superseded by vehicles that do it all. Doctors, lawyers, business executives and even technology columnists for The New York Times will have seen their ranks thinned by charming, attractive, all-knowing algorithms.
How will society function after humanity has been made redundant? Technologists and economists have been grappling with this fear for decades, but in the last few years, one idea has gained widespread interest — including from some of the very technologists who are now building the bot-ruled future.
Their plan is known as “universal basic income,” or U.B.I., and it goes like this: As the jobs dry up because of the spread of artificial intelligence, why not just give everyone a paycheck?
Imagine the government sending each adult about $1,000 a month, about enough to cover housing, food, health care and other basic needs for many Americans. U.B.I. would be aimed at easing the dislocation caused by technological progress, but it would also be bigger than that.
While U.B.I. has been associated with left-leaning academics, feminists and other progressive activists, it has lately been adopted by a wider range of thinkers, including some libertarians and conservatives. It has also gained support among a cadre of venture capitalists in New York and Silicon Valley, the people most familiar with the potential for technology to alter modern work.
Rather than a job-killing catastrophe, tech supporters of U.B.I. consider machine intelligence to be something like a natural bounty for society: The country has struck oil, and now it can hand out checks to each of its citizens.
These supporters argue machine intelligence will produce so much economic surplus that we could collectively afford to liberate much of humanity from both labor and suffering.
The most idealistic thinkers see the plan as a way to foster the sort of quasi-utopian future we’ve only encountered in science fiction universes like that of “Star Trek.” As computers perform more of our work, we’d all be free to become artists, scholars, entrepreneurs or otherwise engage our passions in a society no longer centered on the drudgery of daily labor.
Learn more: A Plan in Case Robots Take the Jobs: Give Everyone a Paycheck
The Latest on: Universal basic income
[google_news title=”” keyword=”Universal basic income” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Universal basic income
- Can South Africa Afford A Basic Income Grant? Or Can We Afford Not To?on April 26, 2024 at 4:07 am
Something must be done to solve South Africa’s social ills but the country cannot afford nor sustain a Basic Income Grant (BIG). This was the position of Business Unity South Africa’s CEO, Cas ...
- Universal Logistics Holdings Reports First Quarter 2024 Financial Results; Declares Dividendon April 25, 2024 at 1:30 pm
Universal Logistics Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: ULH) today reported consolidated first quarter 2024 net income of $52.5 million, or $1.99 per basic and diluted share, on total operating revenues of $491.9 ...
- Redistribution: A Universal Basic Income policy can’t turn poverty into historyon April 25, 2024 at 7:00 am
The politics of redistribution has brought various versions of a UBI into focus. While people in deprivation clearly need relief, a UBI alone can’t be relied upon to make poverty a problem of the past ...
- Supreme Court orders Texas county to halt ‘unlawful’ guaranteed income paymentson April 24, 2024 at 6:00 am
Texas Supreme Court issued a temporary stay preventing Harris County from cash handouts amid lawsuit from AG Ken Paxton.
- Why This Former JPMorgan Exec Left The Corporate World To Provide Basic Income Payments To The Less Fortunateon April 23, 2024 at 6:09 pm
Coaxum was inspired by the social justice movements in the Black community and wanted to create pathways for economic equality for all.
- The Troubling Proliferation of Universal Basic Income Programson April 22, 2024 at 9:28 pm
A lot of communities are experimenting with this costly, ineffective approach to fighting poverty that disincentivizes work. Iowa lawmakers are right to ban localities from creating guaranteed income ...
- I'm a former JP Morgan exec who now works to distribute basic income payments to those in need. Here's why I do it.on April 22, 2024 at 3:31 am
Wole Coaxum left his high-level job at JP Morgan to start a B Corporation that distributes guaranteed basic income payments across the country.
- Guaranteed income returned to Pierce County this week. Why free money deserves a shot | Opinionon April 17, 2024 at 10:16 am
“The boost of flexible cash can help people enrolled in other programs reach for goals beyond what they could with the cash alone,” Mello told the TNT Editorial Board. “It’s a helpful onramp for ...
- Experts Say Universal Basic Income Programs Work, But Republicans Continue To Fight Themon April 15, 2024 at 5:45 pm
Cities have been experimenting with universal basic income, and despite the fact that they work, Republicans have consistently pushed back.
- AI is threatening Americans’ jobs. Could guaranteed income provide a safety net?on April 13, 2024 at 7:30 am
Michael Tubbs was born and raised in Stockton, California, roughly a one-hour drive from Silicon Valley, the birthplace of the AI revolution that’s now forecast to forever change the way Americans ...
via Bing News