The real irony of techno Utopian Economics is that we create data which is harvested by big tech to serve ads without us getting compensated for it to train their AI models which might effectively replace our current jobs which currently barely compensate us.
Now extension of that argument is that should Big tech instead of governments of nation states dispense Universal Basic Income for our digital behaviour which they are shamelessly monetising, but that leads to potential downside of unleashing an Atlas Shruggish socialist digital no activity zone where creators refuse to create content. Imagine an instagram without influencers or imgur without OPs.
So potential solution would be income for digital creators proportional to digital assets or data they create or a unique stamp tethering data to individuals in digital rights management manner so that they can be compensated accurately without potential fraud.
Now this is where the situation gets complicated because data is valuable in aggregates and linking data to individual might unlock the pandora’s box of privacy concerns leading to new age sovereign digital dictatorships led by corporations instead of nation states in the likes of what KGP did in Russia to recruit agents and asset control over masses.
Imagine tinder blackmailing you about your little extra marital fling or uber blackmailing you for going to casual boys hangout at a strip club on corporate travel, or visa asking for money to keep quite about weird purchases you did on some silk road marketplace or zoom blackmailing you about a compromising video they recorded about you even when the camera was off or anonymous curtailing of freedom in speech because you fear whatever you say on internet can be used against you.
Your own data can come back to haunt you dropping the Fawksian mask of internet which was it’s biggest feature morphing into it’s biggest flaw.
There are no easy answers in this techno-social-economic conundrum which stares at us lurking from the abyss, it’s glowing eyes set on our actions and looking to pull us down the moment we fall in some pitfall.
Ishaan Bhola 