Universal Basic Identity
Brian Eno, writing in A Year with Swollen Appendices: Brian Eno's Diary:
Discussion about subsidies for the arts. I told them what Michael Brook’s father said in defence of Canadian subsidies to artists: ‘Call people unemployed and give them \$15,000 a year and they’ll be miserable. Call them artists and give them \$5,000, and they’ll be overjoyed (and might even produce something).
Like most of his diary entries, Eno's half-formed thought is both flippant and incisive.
The money matters. But the naming might matter more.
In a post-industrial / post-scarcity world, identity feels like infrastructure.
Does your government pay you a stipend because the economy left you behind?
Or are they betting on your curiosity, creativity and intellect to create "triggers for experiences" and share them with the world?
Universal Basic Income solves for survival.
Universal Basic Identity solves for meaning.