Historic moment: a challenge for /r/Futurology to design the next greatest $10 million XPRIZE prize. Top ideas by midnight tonight will be brought to the Visioneering meeting this week in L.A. in helping solve one of humanity's grand challenges

A cryptographic // algorithmic 'basic minimum income' system:

As buckminster fuller noted - it only takes a small number of people to create technology which transforms life for the rest of us.

It would then follow to reason that the best strategy for creating new breakthroughs is to ‘farm black swans’ as they say in the VC world (PG: http://www.paulgraham.com/swan.html)

Essentially, let people do what they want until a few of them ‘strike gold’ - and when they do, the benefits should ripple through society.

We don’t need to give everyone busy work - the machines will do that.

We should focus on having people doing what they love - IE. dance, sing, make movies, apps, poetry, art, writing, etc.

The truth is exploring & mastering random / seemingly useless subjects is what unlocks the true potential in humans.

Connecting disparate subjects in unique ways is how novel inventions emerge. A dancer who starts writing code may see things differently than a construction worker who writes code.

Someone who loves building houses doesn’t have to spend their time doing the same thing over and over again (because they’ve found a business model) - they can explore new ways to build houses - how do you make it easier for more people to build houses. Maybe they invent a new tool. Maybe a set of designs for houses that snap together. We don’t know - but imagine if all builders were focused on optimizing systems for the greater good of society - rather than repeating the same thing over and over again because they know it makes them money.


One way we could engineer this system is by implementing a basic minimum income through a cryptographic system similar to Bitcoin.

The technological hurdle with this system would be overcoming a Sybil Attack, whereby one user is able to create multiple accounts and collect multiple ‘basic incomes’ - therefore giving them an advantage in the system.

Sociologically, there are also some large hurdles to overcome.

How do you transition into this system?

Is this something that can be built to accommodate the existing wealth collected by some individuals, or will this system only work if you make a clean break from the existing system and start fresh?

Working towards a fair, basic minimum income system is likely something we will need to figure out in the coming years - income distribution is highly concentrated, and likely to reach a breaking point as the gap increases further.

/r/Futurology Thread