by Gerald Huff
Soon they reached the coffee shop, which had a retro 2010s hipster vibe. They stepped inside, doubling the number of customers on hand. After ordering their drinks they chatted with the barista, a college grad trying to make ends meet.
“Look at this place,” said Jacob as they took seats at a table near the window. “A few years ago, I bet it was full of people.”
“No one takes the time anymore,” Melissa said. “They just run past those damn Supernova kiosks and grab and go.”
“I know. When Haro Burger was announced I starting thinking about what we could do to get back at Supernova.”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
Jacob tried to gauge how serious was about the anti-technology movement. Would she do more than attend a rally? He looked around. The other two patrons were across the shop and the bored barista was watching something on her PNA. Jacob leaned forward and subconsciously Melissa did too.
“Well I thought about welding some of those kiosks shut,” he said quietly.
“Really?” Her eyes widened.
“Yeah. But I didn’t see how I could do it without getting caught.” He watched her carefully. “You said you worked in software and hardware, right?”
“That’s right,” she replied, shifting slightly away from him.
“Do you think those kiosks could be hacked somehow?” Jacob asked.
“I, I don’t know. I don’t know anything about them.”
“Well maybe we could do a little research,” he suggested. “A little side engineering project?” Melissa looked skeptical. He clearly had some convincing to do.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NEW DELHI/PALO ALTO - OCTOBER 13
NEW DELHI, INDIA
Sara took a deep breath, then walked out from behind the heavy dark green curtain. The university lecture hall was overflowing with curious students.
A single comfortable chair, a small table with a glass of water, and a standing lamp had been set up on the front edge of the stage. A burst of applause followed Sara until she sat down. The harsh stage spotlights dimmed until the lamp provided some softer illumination.
Sara perched on the edge of her seat and beamed at her audience. “Thank you, thank you, dear friends,” she said in Hindi. “I am so happy to be here in New Delhi with all of you, not far from where I was born. I would love to speak with you all in Hindi, my beautiful native tongue. But I hope you will forgive me for switching to English, as it is a language you all know and one more universally known around the world. We will provide a full Hindi translation on the website.”
PALO ALTO
Sam Erickson and his colleagues were half the world away in a small studio control room set up in a nondescript office building near downtown Palo Alto. Before joining Sara’s team, he had had fifteen years of experience in directing live media events, mostly for politicians and big corporations. While Sara’s message was different, all the same communication techniques applied.
He donned the headset to the camera operators and checked his call sheet. “This is Sam. Farhad, can you push in a little tighter? Ranita, can you pan left to the students who are in a better light and widen? Thanks, guys.”
While hundreds of PNAs and personal micro-drones captured the event, the main feed streaming on sarasmessage.com came from two professional high-def cameras, one trained on Sara and the other on the audience.
NEW DELHI
Sara raised her arms and pointed into the audience. “Let’s begin. I very much want this to be a discussion. There are volunteers with microphones in the aisles. Please raise your hand to let them know you have a question and they will come to you.”
As she expected, surprised murmurs spread through the room. She knew they had been anticipating a speech.
A young man raised his hand and was handed a microphone. “Sara, hi, I’m Divyesh. I’m an engineering student here at NDU. I was amazed by your VR program. How did you make it? How did you create your VR character so it could answer random questions?”
“Well, I certainly didn’t make it alone, Divyesh. There were dozens of engineers and artists who worked on the VR program with me. We started with an industry standard framework and then extended it to enhance the experience. As for my character, I spent a couple of hundred hours interacting with a RezMat DeepAgent AI to train it in my thoughts and responses. It was a fascinating experience. I started by recording answers to questions prepared by our team. Eventually the AI started asking the questions. Then it applied deep learning to all the responses to create a model of my worldview. That’s how it was able to answer your questions in VR. In fact, it continues to listen and train on all my interactions, including right now.”
Another young man asked for a mic. “Sara, thank you for coming here and making NDU your very first appearance.” There were hoots from the crowd. “My name is Sameer and I am a third-year student. In your VR program you describe a beautiful future for humanity, but here and now, in the real world, I am accumulating debt and I see fewer and fewer opportunities for when I graduate. How do I get to the future when I can’t even get a job, and will probably have to live with my parents?” Knowing laughter echoed across the hall.
Sara nodded. “Thank you for the question, Sameer. It is very wise. You have put your finger on the essential problem of our times. Let me start with a look at the broader picture. Then I will address your here-and-now question.”
PALO ALTO
Sam was relieved. Open mic questions were always risky, but the first couple were straightforward and within expectations. “Okay, people, we got the jobs question. Omnipresence, as soon as Sara mentions it, I want all the basic income politicians, parties, and networks to get hit with messages pointing them to the feed. Search, get our bot network ready to start hitting all the major engines with the words ‘basic income.’
“Remember, people, it’s the middle of the night in the U.S., so I want everyone to focus on Europe. We’ll hit North America in four hours.” He looked at the graphs for the tag sarasmessage and saw a small uptick in India and the EU. That was about right. They didn’t want to spike the charts just as she started speaking.
NEW DELHI
Sara leaned forward, slowly scanning the crowd and making brief eye contact. “We live in a transitional time as humans on this planet. For hundreds of thousands of years, we were scratching out a subsistence existence, fighting nature tooth and claw. As our brains developed and we learned to communicate in spoken and written language, we began a slow process of social and technological development that led to agriculture, domesticated animals, cities, governments, empires, population growth and planetary dominance.
“As we all know, this development had many dark periods and moments. Wars, plagues, slavery, genocide, environmental degradation. And yet, humanity thrived. We have improved the standard of living for billions of people and eradicated many diseases that used to kill hundreds of millions. We have created a global network for sharing ideas and knowledge, and created an economic system that develops ever more life-saving and life-enhancing technologies. We should be proud of these accomplishments.”
Sara paused and took a sip of water from the glass on the table. “Unfortunately, the exponential nature of the growth in our technologies has now caught up to human capability and is beginning to surpass it. The economic systems that have brought us this far did not evolve to handle these technologies.
“Let us look at modern market capitalism. Firms compete by innovating new solutions to people’s problems. People earn money working at those firms to purchase those solutions. There is ongoing creative destruction as new firms and whole new industries arise that displace old ones. And jobs themselves are destroyed by advances in technology, while new ones are added at the same time.
“For vast stretches of human history, human effort, both physical and cognitive, was the only possible way to get things done. Then animals, and later machines, began substituting for raw human m
uscle power. The industrial revolution spurred a huge increase in productivity. But now artificial intelligences are rivaling our cognitive power, and dexterous robots are substituting for humans across the world economy.
“This substitution of capital equipment for human labor is having two very undesirable effects. First, it is making hundreds of millions of people essentially unemployable, as they cannot compete with low-cost machines that perform both physical and cognitive tasks at the price of almost free solar energy. Second, it is concentrating vast wealth in the hands of a tiny minority of people. This distorts democratic processes and leads to speculative bubbles, as money chases more money in increasingly risky ways.
“So, now, finally, to answer your question about getting a job. Over the whole course of human history, it is only for these last two centuries or so that we have had the notion of a job, where people worked for someone who was not their lord or relative. Jobs were a way of compensating people for their labor, which in turn gave them an income so they could buy goods and services and fund technological innovation.
“This was a wonderful virtuous cycle that led to progress for billions of people. But now that automation can now replace people on a massive scale, we have fewer people earning money in jobs, and the virtuous cycle has been broken.
“What we need to do is separate the income that enables consumption from jobs.”
Sara heard whispers from the crowd.
“I believe we have reached the point in the evolution of humanity where every human deserves a basic income guaranteed to them, as a citizen of the nation where they live. This is made possible by the tremendous bounty of productivity that technology is bringing to us. And it is a key mechanism for transitioning to the economy to come.
“For the next few decades, we will still live in an economy of scarcity, where markets driven by consumers making choices with money is the essential way of allocating resources. Market-based competition for goods and services drives innovation. But markets require people to have incomes to make purchases, and to signal to firms what goods and services to offer and how to price them. So even as there are fewer and fewer jobs, we still need people with incomes. That means everyone should receive an income. Not all of us will have jobs—but all of us will have purchasing power.
“How will this be paid for? The same way it has been paid for in the last three hundred years, from companies that provide goods and services. But the income won’t only be through salaries. It could also be, in part, through an enhanced value added tax. Yes, that does mean that prices will not move down as low or as quickly as they would without the new VAT. But lower prices are useless to someone with zero income.
“A universal, unconditional basic income will also eliminate poverty and replace all of the intrusive and paternalistic governmental social welfare programs. It will be a force for enhancing individual liberty and dignity. A guaranteed basic income frees people to take risks, to start businesses, to care for families, to perform public service, to say no to low-paying or demeaning work, to create art, and to work less and enjoy life more.
“Today a few small countries have adopted this policy, but it needs to be implemented everywhere. Twenty years ago, there was a fledgling movement towards a universal basic income but it was shut down by demagogues preaching self-reliance and decrying ‘communism’. The elites feared giving people economic security and conveniently pushed the debate into the usual partisan dysfunction. We missed a critical opportunity then, and the pressures of technology and inequality have only continued to grow. We cannot ignore them any longer.”
PALO ALTO
“OP!” Sam barked. “Where are we with direct messages on basic income?”
“We’ve got about two thousand messages hitting two hundred different targets. We’re starting to see secondary effects.”
“OK, let’s get EU promoters with basic income history to tune into the feed. Web site team, jack up the live viewer numbers, but smoothly. Let’s goose the groundswell a little.” He turned to Kyle Carlson, the assistant director sitting to his left. “Kyle, did she just mention individual liberty and dignity?”
“Yes, she did.”
“Hey OP, let’s start hitting libertarian and conservative targets with the small government message.”
NEW DELHI
“Now, Sameer, as I said, we are in a transitionary period. In just a few generations, if we can continue investing in key technologies, humanity will reach an age of abundance where physical goods and most services can be provided so cheaply, and in such a personalized manner, that money and pricing signals will become increasingly irrelevant. It is very hard to predict what that world will look like and how humans will operate in it. Your great-grandchildren will need to figure that out.
“But it is vital that we get to that future by investing in technologies that can dramatically lower the costs of life’s essentials.
“I predict that in a thousand years, humans will look back at this time and marvel in disbelief that for several hundred years people actually spent most of their waking hours toiling away for money in a job.
“Of course, there will still be work to do. There will be discoveries and inventions, there will be travel and exploration, there will be many forms of artistic creation, and athletic and other types of competition. Humans love challenges and achievement. We will not be satisfied with a comfortable and boring existence. But the vast majority of humans will not labor in a job as we know it today.
“Forgive me, I am getting so far ahead of your question! What does this mean for you, Sameer? With a basic income guarantee, you can move out of your parents’ house!”
The audience broke into laughter.
“You will be able to live on your own, or pool your resources with friends or a partner while you look for ways to earn additional money in a new economy.
“I do not know what talents you possess, Sameer, but perhaps you will be able to create music or designs that people enjoy and compensate you for. Maybe you will work or volunteer in a caring profession, where human contact is fundamental. Perhaps you will be a technologist or scientist or entrepreneur who starts a new company.
“Wherever your interests and capabilities take you, you can rest assured that you will be able to meet your essential needs.”
The audience applauded.
“Of course, most of the world does not have this income guarantee yet. So, literally, what will you do when you graduate? That is the burning question.” Sara paused and smiled. “I have an idea for you, Sameer, and every one of you here today. You should work to change the world and make a basic income happen.”
She paused again and let this sink in.
“Who is going to bring about this kind of change? Not the wealthy capitalists who live in gated communities, isolated from the troubles of this transitional age. The status quo suits them fine. It is going to be up to you and many ordinary people like you to force our institutions to change. There are several political parties here in India that have basic income in their platforms. Vote for them. Go work for them. Make it happen.”
There was half-hearted applause from the audience.
Sara knew what was going on in their minds. This was no longer a feel-good speech about a utopian future. She had just challenged each of them to act, to make a difference, to not accept the world as it is.
She could see the doubts and fears on their faces. Sara understood what they were thinking. What about my student loan debt? What about the failed revolutions of the recent past, where people had instigated swift and remarkable changes, only to see dictators replaced by other dictators or non-democratic religious parties? The corporations, the wealthy, and many politicians will all be against us. She let them sit with their discomfort.
“Let’s take another question.”
PALO ALTO
Sam studied the array of monitors in front of him. Basic income and sarasmessage were trending up nicely, and l
egitimate live streaming sessions were now over twenty thousand. Subtracting their ten thousand paid promoters, there were also more than a hundred thousand real humans, as best as they could tell, engaged in the online conversation. Not bad for a weekday morning in the EU.
NEW DELHI
“Hi, Sara. My name is Arjun. Thanks for giving me hope about my fine arts degree. I’m wondering what you think about income inequality and how we can eliminate it.”
“Thank you, Arjun, for the question. Let me say very clearly that I don’t think we should eliminate income inequality.”
The audience buzzed with expressions of surprise.
“That might surprise you, but let me explain. Human talent is not evenly distributed. As you can see,” she said, pointing to her small frame, “I am not going to take on Reza Pavel in basketball.” The audience cheered the name of their university’s star player.
“With the digitization of everything, including 3D printing, and eventually atomically precise manufacturing, the most talented people will tend to dominate many markets, because the marginal cost of production will drop to near zero. This is the superstar or winner-take-all phenomenon. We see it with actors, musicians, athletes, artists, designers, software companies, and app store developers. A very tiny number of superstars make a lot of money, and the long tail of millions of other participants each make very little.
“In addition, the technologists and the leaders of organizations that actually create the things that improve our lives are going to be rewarded for the incredible value they deliver to humanity. The hard truth is that the talented and entrepreneurial will reap far more financial rewards than the vast majority of people.
“However, not all great wealth is generated by creative and productive activities. The finance sector, in particular, often seeks to generate returns on money through speculation and gaming the system instead of through real investment. This leads to destructive bubbles, instability, money chasing riskier and riskier opportunities, nanosecond trade arbitrage, and preferential government treatment through regulatory capture. I strongly believe that free, competitive markets for goods and services will spur innovation, reduce costs, and benefit humanity. I also believe that we need to regulate financial markets to reduce their inherent risks.