AI's barbell economy will need both UBI and immersive entertainment

October 13, 2025

UBI is an obvious choice for calming the masses when the world turns into a lopsided 90-10 barbell. But I don't think it will be nearly enough.

I think entertainment will be needed to keep people occupied. And it can't just be meme-able social media that can convince people that they are unhappy and drive them to violence. That wouldn't be good.

I think perhaps the only near-term solution is to create games that are so good and so immersive that people just love to play them and they basically go and build their lives inside of them.

They'll need to be an alternative meaning loop—since the other one of having a good job and working hard and being prosperous will be gone for many people.

The way I see this going down is companies like OpenAI and xAI become government contractors hired to keep the masses from rioting. I mean, that's a bad way to say it, but it's essentially true.

The government contracts them and probably Microsoft and Meta and probably Google and a bunch of other companies and a bunch of startups to basically go create these completely immersive games. Eventually with VR, and eventually with immersive suits and all the stuff that we expect from sci-fi.

Not everyone will need this or do this, of course. But I think many people will. And maybe it won't all be games. Maybe it'll be just pure viewing entertainment or immersive, sort of passive participation. But I think games are the natural end point there because you're participating instead of just watching.

Anyway, keep an eye out for it.