Basic Income and the Robot Apocalypse
In recent years, a lot of interest in Basic Income seems to have been generated as a result of the perceived threat of a ‘robot apocalypse’ — not an apocalypse of AI-enabled robots literally enslaving us through some sort of military takeover, but a robot jobs apocalypse.
The fear is that robots will soon take over so many jobs that there will be a massive surge in unemployment levels — and a Basic Income system will then be essential to prevent mass poverty, discontent, chaos, revolt and the potential disintegration of our entire society.
In a sense, I’m grateful for this fear, because it does seem to have helped generate interest in Basic Income — and I’m a very keen supporter and promoter of Basic Income.
But on the other hand: I don’t promote Basic Income as being necessary to combat the robot apocalypse and I’m concerned that the focus on the potential of a robot apocalypse might possibly do more harm that good.
My chief concern is that if Basic Income is promoted on the basis of misleading or exaggerated claims, this could seriously harm the credibility of the overall campaign for a Basic Income.
Whilst it is almost certainly true that many jobs currently undertaken by humans will be taken over by robots, computers or other machines within the foreseeable future, that’s…
