Early next year I will be giving a talk on the challenges and opportunities arising from the current transformation of economy and society by technology and technology enabled globalization. I am rapidly realizing though that I don’t have nearly enough time to chase down all the primary research to validate (or invalidate) some of my thinking. Here are some of the questions I am most interested in:

1. What is the foundational math of a Basic Income Guarantee? That is comparing some of the current government revenue base to expenditures to the total cost of a potential Basic Income Guarantee.

2. What can be learned from experiments with programs similar to Basic Income Guarantees that have taken place elsewhere?

3. What do we know about human behavior from tribes living in abundant areas? Including historic accounts, such as the first voyage of the Endeavour.

4. What behaviors are we observing in online systems that are marked by abundance?

5. What is the latest evidence on key macro trends, including population growth, levels of employment, under-employment and unemployment in economies around the world?

I am currently thinking that a graduate student in economics, politics or history here in the city (NYU, Columbia, Cuny, New School) would be ideal, but am entirely open to other backgrounds. This will be a paid position and I expect it to be on the order of 10 hours per week for at least a couple of months but could go on longer. Any and all suggestions on how to best find the right person are welcome!