https://medium.com/utopia-for-realists/why-do-the-poor-make-such-poor-decisions-f05d84c44f1a was interesting, vis a vis what happens when you just give poor people money.
-- rec -- On Mon, Jun 6, 2016 at 4:54 PM, Marcus Daniels <mar...@snoutfarm.com> wrote: > I suspect a universal basic income is a requirement for people to _not_ > seek an idle life. If people can't count on food, shelter, and health > care, they probably can't engage in anything in a substantial way. On > the other hand, saving the people that could do substantial things (and by > "substantial" I mean artistic or scientific discovery or synthesis), could > come at a prohibitive cost of saving those that won't. A problem with the > "day jobber" approach is the narrowing of substantial things to what > happens to be in the interest of dominant organizations. Even in silicon > valley, that's a harsh narrowing of the possible. So I would say do it to > make the world interesting and not just for humanitarian reasons. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of glen ? > Sent: Monday, June 06, 2016 1:36 PM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Fascinating article on how AI is driving change in > SEO, categories of AI and the Law of Accelerating Returns > > > On that note, I found this article interesting: > > A Universal Basic Income Is a Poor Tool to Fight Poverty > > http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/01/business/economy/universal-basic-income-poverty.html?_r=0 > > One of the interesting dynamics I've noticed is when I argue about the > basic income with people who have day jobs (mostly venture funded, but some > megacorps like Intel), they tend to object strongly; and when I have > similar conversations with people who struggle on a continual basis to find > and execute _projects_ (mostly DIY people who do a lot of freelance work > from hardware prototyping to fixing motorcycles), they tend to be for the > idea (if not the practicals of how to pay for it). > > I can't help thinking it has to do with the (somewhat false) dichotomy > between those who think people are basically good, productive, energetic, > useful versus those who think (most) people are basically lazy, > unproductive, parasites. The DIYers surround themselves with similarly > creative people, whereas the day-job people are either themselves or > surrounded by, people they feel don't pull their weight. (I know I've > often felt like a "third wheel" when working on large teams... and I end up > having to fend for myself and forcibly squeeze some task out so that I can > be productive. These day-jobbers might feel similarly at various times. > Or they're simply narcissists and don't recognize the contributions of > their team members.) > > It also seems coincident with "great man" worship... The day-jobbers tend > to put more stock in famous people (like Musk or Hawking or whoever), > whereas the DIYers seem to be open to or tolerant of ideas (or even ways of > life) in which they may initially see zero benefit. > > > On 06/06/2016 11:24 AM, Pamela McCorduck wrote: > > > > Finally, and this is where my anger really boils: they sound to me like > the worst kind of patronizing, privileged white guys imaginable. There’s no > sense in their aggrieved messages that billions of people around the globe > are struggling, and have lives that could be vastly improved with AI. > Maybe it behooves them to imagine the good AI can do for those people, > instead of stamping their feet because AI is going to upset their personal > world. Which it will. It must be very hard to be the smartest guy on the > block for so long, and then here comes something even smarter. > > -- > ☣ glen > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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