[FRIAM] The case for universal basic income UBI

[Steve Smith]

Lazily composing at least two upshots of this conversation (and the
smart-contract parallel one):

1) I think Russ brought up what *I* thought was implicit in Reciprocity
(though I understand why it is not  since I borrowed my use of the term
from gift economies, not adhering to the (obvious) mathematical meaning
that most here would jump to):   My intended connotation of Reciprocity
included both "spirit of generosity and gratitude", so it is excellent
that those were called out as possibly essential (or at least
efficient?) in improving the state of our relations.

2) Glen opened the question of "transitivity" which I think you (Jon)
are addressing here with good motivation.   In my smart-contract
considerations, the point would be that the values one attached to "raw
value" (money/crypto¢) in their transactions would propogate through.  
For example, food stamps cannot (directly) be redeemed for non-food
items (specifically alcohol, tobacco, pet food, sunglasses) and if I
paid a 500% surcharge on the few gallons of petrol I run through my
Extended Range EV as a way to decline to participate in A) blood for oil
wars and B) clubbing baby seals in the arctic, those crypto¢ would
*avoid* the pockets of the warmongers and seal-clubbers and settle in
the pockets of those who went to the effort to get their oil without
that.   Of course, just like there can be black/grey markets in food
stamps "hey buddy, I'll give ya $.50 on the dollar for those food
stamps!",   there would surely appear money-changers/launderers who
would *try* to cross-connect the drinking water with the black water for
their own profits.   In principle, pervasive use of smart contracts
*could* make that vanishingly harder and harder with adoption.

3) I knew "at least" would come in handy.   My intuitive conception of
Reciprocity is that it is as much about back as forward propogation.  
SteveG will love the opportunity for a Dual Field encoding I think.   
By taking Renee to dinner for Mother's Day, he not only acts as a proxy
for her own children in some sense, I would like to believe he did it
*because* Renee's motherhood has already been her gift to him...
whatever benefits he gets from a step-role, from Renee being a better
partner having raised children, etc. and that dinner is to honor and
reciprocate for something he has *already received* from her (see 1
above, "gratitude").

The spectral graph and circuit analysis Jon points to may well be
useful/important for measurement/analysis of how well a system is
working.  Ideally the implementation is entirely local in the sense of
agents on networks of transactions.  

Smart contracts are an implementation of distributed computation where
computation (complex decision making) is deferred to the last (or most
appropriate) place in the network.  For example, the fueling depot that
accepts my anti-war/anti-ANWR crypto¢ for petrol passes it to his
wholesale source which passes it through the "circuit".... the gas pump
owner doesn't need to know (or share or even have an opinion on) what
"values" are embedded in my crypto¢, he simply takes his "service cut"
on the transaction as does each other middleman right up to the guy
gently scooping teaspoons of bubbling crude out of an artesian well to
run through his handmade still.   His still produces no better (maybe
worse) heptane/octane than BP or ARCO but he *still* gets paid
(ultimately by me) for so gently milking the dino juice from the earth
for me.

- Steve

On 5/11/21 3:21 PM, jon zingale wrote:
> I have failed to follow this discussion very closely. That said, to
> what extent could frameworks like those that underlie spring rank
> <https://github.com/cdebacco/SpringRank> or gauge-theoretic price as
> curvature <https://arxiv.org/pdf/0908.3043.pdf> give reasonable
> characterizations of reciprocity over circuits? To what extent does
> Levine's
> <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/002251938090288X>
> (painfully straightforward) solving for eigenstates?
>
> * Apologies for any paywalls, I am often stymied to find better access.
>
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