Really thought-provoking piece—thanks for sharing it.
One idea I keep coming back to is that the only way this all stacks up long-term is if large groups of humans become true stakeholders in the peanut butter company (or whatever version of the AI-powered, fully-automated production pipeline we're talking about).
If the process no longer requires human labour, then the value it generates must flow back to people in some other way—ideally through ownership.
In that sense, it almost doesn't matter if humans are removed from the production process, as long as they benefit structurally from it.
We may be seeing the early seeds of this in the crypto and DAO space—these models let communities co-own and co-govern value-generating systems. It’s not perfect yet (governance is still hard), but the direction is promising. It shifts participation from labor to stakeholding.
Framed a certain way, this could evolve into a decentralized form of UBI—not state-sponsored and centralized, but emerging from networks or protocols created by philanthropic or mission-driven founders. For me this is the most palitable form of UBI: opt-in, free to exit, distributed, community-owned, and less susceptible to top-down control.
Yes, the way you lay this out is almost exactly as I envision it too. Humans should be able to financially benefit from companies that are autonomous. While this will leave us with one of the most pressing questions of our time—finding meaning in our lives—we will at least have finances to support ourselves while we search.
I love that you brought DAO and crypto up, I think that it fits in extraordinarily well here. I actually tried to envision what a crypto protocol UBI system would look like when AI takes over, without getting the government involved, which reduces admin overhead and no risk of corrupt hands in the pot. The blockchain implementation is in the last section: https://www.frontierletter.com/p/the-ai-epoch-humanity-economics-and
I also couldn't agree more with your most acceptable form of UBI: opt-in, free to exit, distributed, community-owned, and less susceptible to top-down control. This should be the aim at all costs if a UBI system is attempted.
Really thought-provoking piece—thanks for sharing it.
One idea I keep coming back to is that the only way this all stacks up long-term is if large groups of humans become true stakeholders in the peanut butter company (or whatever version of the AI-powered, fully-automated production pipeline we're talking about).
If the process no longer requires human labour, then the value it generates must flow back to people in some other way—ideally through ownership.
In that sense, it almost doesn't matter if humans are removed from the production process, as long as they benefit structurally from it.
We may be seeing the early seeds of this in the crypto and DAO space—these models let communities co-own and co-govern value-generating systems. It’s not perfect yet (governance is still hard), but the direction is promising. It shifts participation from labor to stakeholding.
Framed a certain way, this could evolve into a decentralized form of UBI—not state-sponsored and centralized, but emerging from networks or protocols created by philanthropic or mission-driven founders. For me this is the most palitable form of UBI: opt-in, free to exit, distributed, community-owned, and less susceptible to top-down control.
Thank you, Mark!
Yes, the way you lay this out is almost exactly as I envision it too. Humans should be able to financially benefit from companies that are autonomous. While this will leave us with one of the most pressing questions of our time—finding meaning in our lives—we will at least have finances to support ourselves while we search.
I love that you brought DAO and crypto up, I think that it fits in extraordinarily well here. I actually tried to envision what a crypto protocol UBI system would look like when AI takes over, without getting the government involved, which reduces admin overhead and no risk of corrupt hands in the pot. The blockchain implementation is in the last section: https://www.frontierletter.com/p/the-ai-epoch-humanity-economics-and
I also couldn't agree more with your most acceptable form of UBI: opt-in, free to exit, distributed, community-owned, and less susceptible to top-down control. This should be the aim at all costs if a UBI system is attempted.
Thanks for the link will take a look