Quality over quantity: universal basic income, life extension, and the model of society

Published in 1953, Arthur C. Clarke’s "Childhood's End" offers a vision of the planet's future should an alien race—known as the Overlords—establish a series of rules of conduct to correct humanity's course, which would otherwise lead to extinction. It was the post-World War II era, the dawn of the nuclear age, when the threat of the bomb was a daily fear.

The beginning of the book focuses specifically on the achievement of utopia—a perfect social, economic, and political balance on Earth—though in this case, the "miracle" was made possible by extraterrestrial intervention. Beyond the motives and consequences of this alien presence, I would like to highlight some of the descriptive elements of what Clarke, in the early 1950s, imagined a balanced and perfect society would look like. Among the highlights are:

1. Scientific knowledge became so widespread that religions ceased to exist. They were no longer necessary, nor did they make sense within the context created by the author.
2. The creation of autonomous flying cars made the world's distances even shorter, with some vehicles even serving as fully equipped flying homes.
3. Automation made it possible to produce enough wealth to be redistributed to the people, so that no one would have to work for survival anymore, only on things that are meaningful and enjoyable.
4. In response to the control of the Overlords—who, despite everything, showed no violence even toward their opponents and critics—a community was created on islands named New Athens and Sparta. While the rest of the world had become intoxicated by the consumption of entertainment and had lost its creative drive or scientific curiosity, these islands pursued experimentation in art and science.
5. Even though the motives or even the appearance of these Overlords remained unknown, most humans did not object: having achieved happiness and balance was enough.

Clarke was a physicist and mathematician known for his science fiction works and his vision, which was far ahead of its time, making him an expert futurist capable of"predicting" in the 1970s our current world of computers and portable cell phones. In "Childhood's End," the author creates a complex context in which the Overlords act strategically and even superhumanly, as they are not influenced by the errors and vices of the species. However, one of Clarke's most impressive insights was how he described a society that we now glimpse through the renewed concept of Universal Basic Income supported by the growing automation of production processes. In the writer's words, in this context,

“…production became, to a large extent, automatic: robot factories poured out consumer goods in such incessant streams that all the basic necessities of life were, for all intents and purposes, free. Men worked for the luxury items they desired. Or, simply, they did not work.
It was a Unified World. The old names of the old countries were still used, but they were no longer convenient postal divisions. There was no one on Earth who did not know English, who did not know how to read, who did not have access to a television set, or who could not visit the other side of the planet within twenty-four hours.
Crime had practically disappeared. It had become both unnecessary and impossible. When no one lacked anything, there was no reason to steal. Furthermore, all potential criminals knew there was no way to escape the surveillance of the Overlords. In the early days of their rule, they had acted so effectively for law and order that the lesson had never been forgotten.
Crimes of passion, while not truly extinct, were almost unknown. Now that so many of their psychological problems had been removed, humanity was much more sensible and less irrational. What, in past eras, would have been called depravity, was now nothing more than eccentricity… or, at worst, bad manners.”

Clarke further comments that these changes resulted in a slowing of the pace of life, which was so characteristic of the 20th century. “Life was more leisurely than it had been for generations. Consequently, for a few it had less flavor, but for the majority, it had more placidity. Western man had relearned something that the rest of the world had never forgotten: that there was nothing sinful about pleasure, provided it did not degenerate into mere indolence.” In other words, the author describes such a significant change in people's quality of life that it directly impacted the functioning of society—hence the extinction of crime or even religion due to the "raising of humanity's educational standard."

Although the author presents developments still laden with a certain pretension regarding the superiority of scientific thought or even a colonialist viewpoint (everyone speaks English, comparisons to how England colonized India, etc.), it is interesting to see how Clarke anticipates some of the arguments for Universal Basic Income through industrial automation as a way to emancipate man from problems such as mental health, poverty, and crime, while also inserting an inspection factor—in this case, the aliens—which today is also defended through monitoring technologies like the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain as methods to ensure the regulation of processes.

However, it is especially in Clarke's comment that this technological shift brought about a change in the way our time would be slowed down, thus enabling people to have a better quality of life. While reading this passage, I was reminded of the questions raised by human extension researchers, such as Aubrey de Grey, who address the problem of "boredom" in a life extended beyond 150 years. Perhaps the greater problem of living more than 150 years, or ultimately indefinitely, does not lie in the possibility of exhausting all possible experiences and life events in the world, but rather in how long it would take for a person to truly emancipate themselves to live a full life ad infinitum?

It seems obvious, but this doesn't always cross the minds of life-extension advocates. I mean, there are already various points of criticism regarding how this type of procedure and achievement would only be possible, in principle, for people with significant purchasing power — that is, people who already live in a healthier and more financially sustainable standard. In other words, the wealthy would not only be able to prolong their lives because they have the financial resources to undergo these procedures, but they also already possess a high quality of life even before achieving immortality. For the poor, beyond already living in precarious conditions, extending life would necessarily mean either emancipating themselves from this scenario or simply making the journey even longer — much like how longevity also leads to issues like social security being revised so that workers contribute for even longer.

Of course, if we can truly reach a point of automation where the shortcomings of unemployment are met by profit redistribution, it is possible that we will see an improvement in quality of life. But the big question here is how our desire to live longer, or even to not die, also stems from the impossibility of achieving fulfillment throughout our lives due to the commitments we have. That is, we spend more than half our lives studying in schools and colleges until we find a job that won't necessarily provide us with enough funds to live with quality and ensure a fulfilling old age. By trying to extend life, we are also trying to increase the time frame to reach this point of balance which, however, never arrives — less because of our lifespan and more because of the logic of our society.

Ultimately, the hope is that we reach a point where we can not only establish fair automation and profit redistribution, but also avoid falling into the temptation of adapting this new context according to old premises. The fact that we might, by chance, have enough to survive in balance does not guarantee that strategies to stimulate consumption and competition will cease to exist — just as it happened shortly after the first industrial revolution, with the emergence of advertising and credit-release strategies to stimulate market growth and consumption.

As we glimpse these scenarios that reach us already fully formed through science fiction, we have the space and time to reflect on our own context, more than fifty years after the book hit bookstores, and which elements from it can be improved, reconsidered, or discarded. It is in this sense that the dangerous, yet no less seductive, vision of Clarke's utopia in "Childhood's End" serves as a warning for issues beyond "boredom" or the mere economic equation of resources and reallocation in society, but rather how we will handle this structural change: in our favor or against us?

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