The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being stung during the trip, but the scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, the frog would sink and the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and begins carrying the scorpion, but midway across the river the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both. When asked why, the scorpion explains that this is simply its nature.
I am a programmer. I destroy jobs. It's my nature. Not just terrible office jobs. Nice jobs, craft jobs like making musical instruments, *bam* gone. Because I wanted to have some fun. Because my ground state of being is to make tools that replace people.
Bruce Sterling is advocating that this bubble we try not to give up all the wealth to investors, to try to keep some of it for ourselves. Winners of the last bubble such as Bill Gates are doing philanthropic work. I think this is half right, but it's still within a system that is broken. I think we have an obligation to fix the system that we have become a disruptive, destructive element of. Not just to disrupt within the system, neither to just disrupt the system, but we should also try to make something a little bit better.
Unconditional basic rent would be one possible solution. With unconditional rent, a craftsperson would still be able to take joy in the craft that I destroyed as a business. Would it destroy some people, not having to work? A lot of people have been raised to believe that. How do we transition? How do we frame it? What does it look like from the ground?