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TOPIC DEFINITION

1. What is the history
of basic income?

historical person or event connected with Basic Income historical person or event connected with Automation 2000 2010 1860 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1960 1950 1980 1970 1990 1801 The automated loom French silk weaver and inventor Joseph Marie Jacquard invents an automated loom that is controlled by punch cards . Within a decade it is being mass-produced, and thousands are in use across Europe. 1881 "Pinocchio" Alaska has a small basic income, since 1982: Permanent Fund Dividend. Italian author Carlo Collodi writes Pinocchio , a children's book about a marionette who turns into a real boy. The literary theme of mechanical men who come to life will flourish along with the technological evolution of robots --most recently, in movies like Steven Spielberg's A.I. and in TV characters like Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation. "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" 1900 L. Frank Baum invents one of the literary world's most beloved robots in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz : the Tin Woodsman , a mechanical man in search of a heart. The character is seen as a symbol for the soullessness of mechanized industry. 1925 The radio-controlled "American Wonder" In 1925, Houdina Radio Control demonstrated the radio-controlled "American Wonder" in New York City. The demonstration featured a 1926 Chandler equipped with a transmitting antennae on the hood. It was operated by a second car that followed it and sent out radio impulses which were caught by the transmitting antennae. 1939 Elektro at the World's Fair Built by Westinghouse, the relay-based Elektro robot responds to the rhythm of voice commands and delivers wisecracks pre-recorded on 78 rpm records. It appeared at the World's Fair, and it c ould move its head and arms … and even "smoked" cigarettes. 1943 A Logical Calculus in Nervous Activity Two scientists, Warren S. McCulloch and Walter H. Pitts , publish the groundbreaking paper A Logical Calculus of the Ideas Immanent in Nervous Activity. The paper quickly became a foundational work in the study of artificial neural networks and has many applications in artificial intelligence research . In it McCulloch and Pitts described a simplified neural network architecture for intelligence, and while the neurons they described were greatly simplified compared to biological neurons, the model they proposed was enhanced and improved upon by subsequent generations of researchers. 1948 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener publishes the book Cybernetics , which has a major influence on research into artificial intelligence and control systems . Wiener drew on his World War II experiments with anti-aircraft systems that anticipated the course of enemy planes by interpreting radar images. Wiener coined the term "cybernetics" from the Greek word for "steersman." 1953 Automatic controls In the 1940s and 1950s, German mathematician Irmgard Flugge-Lotz developed the theory of discontinuous automatic controls , which found military applications during the Second World War to f ire control systems and aircraft navigation systems . She published the first textbook on discontinuous automatic control in 1953. 1955 The Turing Test Alan Turing creates a standard test to answer: “ Can machines think? ” He proposed that if a computer, on the basis of written replies to questions, could not be distinguished from a human respondent, then it must be “ thinking ” . 1981 The direct drive armt The first direct drive (DD) arm by Takeo Kanade serves as the prototype for DD arms used in industry today. The electric motors housed inside the joints eliminated the need for the chains or tendons used in earlier robots. DD arms were fast and accurate because they minimize friction and backlash. 1989 Computer defeats master chess player David Levy is the first master chess player to be defeated by a computer . The program Deep Thought defeats Levy who had beaten all other previous computer counterparts since 1968. Honda’s humanoid robot 2000 Honda’s Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility (ASIMO) humanoid robot is introduced. It could walk 1 mph, climb stairs and change its direction after detecting hazards. Using the camera mounted in its head, ASIMO could also recognize faces, gestures and the movements of multiple objects. Additionally, ASIMO had microphones that allowed it to react to voice commands. About 100 were built. 2011 Siri is Announced Siri is introduced as a built-in feature with the Apple iPhone 4S smartphone in October. A voice-activated personal assistant, Siri could “ understand ” natural language requests and also adjust the information it retrieved from the web by learning user tendencies and preferences. Siri could perform a wide number of functions – from recommending local restaurants (using the web and the iPhone’s built-in GPS navigation system), providing walking or driving directions, giving weather forecasts, showing current sports scores, and even answering seemingly meaningless questions. Fear of AI 2015 Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates joins a number of prominent tech gurus and scientists in revealing his thoughts on the potentially dangerous effects and unintended consequences of artificial intelligence on human civilization. Previously, Elon Musk , Stephen Hawking , and others had expressed similar sentiments. Those on the other side of the debate felt artificial intelligence would usher in an era of unprecedented human achievement, aided by the “ minds ” of humanity’s artificial brethren. 1997 Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov With the ability to evaluate 200 million positions per second, IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer defeats the current world chess champion, Garry Kasparov on May 11. Of the six matches played, Deep Blue won two , Kasparov won one and the other three matches ended in a draw. The games took place over several days and were played in a television studio with a sold out audience of 600 watching each match on television screens in a theater several floors below. These matches were considered a rematch, as Kasparov had defeated an earlier version of Deep Blue in 1996. 2015 Basic Income Action Basic income is an idea whose time is now. Basic Income Action , founded in 2015, is writing the next chapter . 2015 Charles Murray Charles Murray , a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of several influential books, published In Our Hands: a plan to replace the welfare state in 2006. He called for guaranteed income of $10,000 a year to every citizen age 21 or over. 2014 Peter Barnes Journalist and businessman Peter Barnes , in With Liberty and Dividends for All: how to save our middle class when jobs don’t pay enough , (2014), calls for a basic income funded through carbon taxes and other sources of natural wealth. This combined policy, in his view, is necessary for real progress on global warming and income inequality. 2012 Karl Widerquist Karl Widerquist is an economist and a professor of philosophy at Georgetown University–Qatar, and was a co-founder of USBIG . He has written or edited several books about basic income, including Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend : examining its suitability as a model (2012); and Exporting the Alaska Mode l: adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for reform around the world (2012) 2006 Stanley Aronowitz Stanley Aronowitz , a professor at City University of New York Graduate Center, long-time labor organizer, and author of many books, endorsed a guaranteed basic income in Left Turn: Forging a new political future (2006). 2002 USBIG + Basic Income Canada The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network , was founded in 1999 as an informal association of academics and activists . Since 2002, USBIG has held annual meetings, recently in partnership with Basic Income Canada . 1999 U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network The U.S. Basic Income Guarantee Network , was founded in 1999 as an informal association of academics and activists . Since 2002, USBIG has held annual meetings, recently in partnership with Basic Income Canada . 1995 Jeremy Rifkin Jeremy Rifkin, a professor at the Wharton School, is leading analyst of economic trends and technology. In The End of Work: the decline of the global labor force and the dawn of the post-market era, 1995, he wrote: "Since the advances in technology are going to mean fewer and fewer jobs in the market economy, the only effective way to ensure those permanently displaced by machinery share the benefits of increased productivity is to provide some kind of government-guaranteed income . 1986 The Basic Income Earth Network, BIEN The term basic income was introduced in the mid-1980s, and the Basic Income Earth Network, BIEN , was founded in 1986. (Initially, the “ E ” in BIEN was “ European. ” Members changed it to “ Earth ” after a 2002 congress in Geneva.) 1982 The Permanent Fund Dividend, Alaska Alaska has a small basic income, since 1982: the Permanent Fund Dividend. Every resident gets a yearly check , money from oil royalties, between $1,000 and $2,000 normally, depending on oil prices and other factors. Alaskans love it. The benefits have been well documented. Basic income activists around the world cite it as an example . 1982 Jimmy Carter Comprehensive welfare reform was a major issue for Jimmy Carter in his 1976 presidential campaign, but Congress rejected his Program for Better Jobs and Income Support. 1975 Gerald Ford Gerald Ford , while still in Congress, was the leading Republican supporter of Nixon’s Family Assistance Plan . In 1975, Ford signed a scaled-back version, the Earned Income Tax Credit . The EITC has been America’s most successful antipoverty program , and Democrats and Republicans have expanded it repeatedly. 1972 George McGovern, James Tobin In the 1972 presidential race, Democratic candidate George McGovern campaigned for universal “ Demogrants ” — guaranteed payments of $1,000 a year to every citizen . The plan was designed by James Tobin, a 1981 Nobel laureate. D.C. Statehood Party 1970 “ A national guaranteed income ” was in the founding platform of the D.C. Statehood Party, which formed in 1970 to advocate for the civil rights of residents of the District of Columbia. Residents of D.C., now 660,000 people, have o nly a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives and no voice in the Senate . The U.S. Congress often overrides actions by the elected mayor and city council. Daniel Patrick Moynihan 1970 In the 1960s, a basic income was part of the mainstream political discussion in the U.S. President Richard Nixon even proposed an income floor, based on ideas developed by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Martin Luther King Jr. called for a guaranteed income in his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1968). This is much more than a civil rights program, he noted, because more than two-thirds of the beneficiaries would be white." 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. Philip Wogaman , a minister and professor of Christian social ethics, wrote Guaranteed Annual Income : the moral issues in 1968. He concluded that “ the case for guaranteed income is persuasive on both ethical and practical grounds . ” "Guaranteed income as a secure economic floor will make it possible for men to become what God intended them to become … The fact that many will doubtless abuse this freedom is a risk which God has taken in creating man in the first place." 1968 Philip Wogaman 1968 Paul Samuelson In the spring of 1968, Paul Samuelson , the 1970 Nobel laureate in economics, joined four other prominent economists – John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Lampman, Harold Watts, and James Tobin, a 1981 Nobel laureate – and published a letter that called on Congress “ to adopt this year a national system of income guarantees and supplements . ” The letter was widely circulated, and more than 1,200 of their colleagues signed on . 1968 Income maintenance experiments in New Jersey The New Jersey Income Maintenance Experiment was designed to estimate the extent to which workers in poor families would be induced to work less by new income maintenance programs. 1966 John Kenneth Galbraith John Kenneth Galbraith was a leading liberal economist. He called for a guaranteed income in a number of articles in the 1960s and in the second edition of his bestselling book, The Affluent Society. In a 1966 article he wrote: "We need to consider the one prompt and effective solution for poverty , which is to provide everyone with a minimum income . The arguments against this proposal are numerous, but most of them are excuses for not thinking about a solution, even one that is so exceedingly plausible." 1963 Robert Theobald In Free Men and Free Markets (1963), social philosopher Robert Theobald sought to establish “ new principles specifically designed to break the link between jobs and income. ” The need is clear: the principle of an economic floor under each individual must be established. 1949 Peter Drucker Peter Drucker , a pioneer in the study of business and management, proposed a “ predictable income plan ” in The New Society, published in 1949 and reissued in 1962 and 1993. Predictable income would “ banish the uncertainty, the dread of the unknown and the deep feelings of insecurity under which the worker today lives. ” 1947 Eleanor Roosevelt In 1947, Eleanor Roosevelt was asked to chair a United Nations commission on human rights and freedoms . Their efforts led to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is widely respected and cited around the world. Several articles imply a right to a basic income. 1934 "Townsend Plan", "Share Our Wealth" In 1934-5, more than two million people supported the Townsend Plan to give everyone age 60 and over a monthly payment of $200 (about $3,500 in today’s dollars). Share Our Wealth claimed to have 7.5 million members , and they were demanding a guaranteed annual income for every family, $2,500 ($44,000 today). 1888 Edward Bellamy Edward Bellamy ’s novel, Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888) imagined a future where government provides for everyone’s basic needs . People around the country formed more than 160 “ Bellamy Clubs ” to promote his ideas. 1879 Henry George In Progress and Poverty (1879), Henry George argued that poverty is a consequence of allowing a few people to control the land. He called for a tax on land values, as the single tax , and asserted that it would create economic opportunities and provide enough revenue to end poverty. 1862 Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln called for, and Congress passed, the National Homestead Act of 1862 . It granted 160 acres of public land to any head of a family 21 years of age or older who agreed to reside upon the land and cultivate it for five years. Almost 720,000 homesteads were established under the law, and homesteads continued to be available in some states until the early 1900s. 1797 Thomas Paine Thomas Paine , in Agrarian Justice (1797), viewed land as the “ common heritage of mankind, ” and sought to have landowners pay a “ ground rent ” into a “ national fund . ” Every citizen would then receive a cash payment at age 21 and yearly payments starting at age 50 as “ a right, and not a charity. ” Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson , while serving in the Virginia state legislature, before he wrote the Declaration of Independence , proposed giving 50 acres of land to propertyless indivi - duals to secure their subsistence and their rights as citizens . John Adams John Adams asserted that “ every member of society ” should be “ possessed of small estates ” as a basis for “ equal liberty. ”
Description Protocol Data

Description

The timeline traces the evolution of the topic and shows that it is born and developed in the modern history concurrently the first industrial revolution. The debate has grown in history up to the contemporary age. The graph highlights the main events of the story of UBI confronting them with the main events in the story of automation.

The research of the term "basic Income" on Google was pretty much stable in time, until 2015 when The Finnish Social Insurance Institution, also known as Kela, has begun to work on a proposal that would guarantee a basic income to every citizen. That proposal was finally turn into an experiment that started two years later, in 2017.
The research on Google started to increased from that moment, it’s clear from the trend line that every peak is caused by a public discussion around the launch of a pilot experiment or by a debate around the feasibility of basic income in a particular state. We can deduce that there is not a global concern around the topic of basic income, but there is much more interest in those countries that are discussing about it.
The most popular events were defined as a result of Google Trends research. Explore the most popular activity of this topic in Google Search it’s possible to see the most important events that happened at current time in the world.

Protocol

To make the timeline it was necessary to make a chart of the most important events in the history of UBI, comparing data from wikipedia pages and basicincomeaction.com trend The Google trend graph wants to show the growth of the debate in last years

Data

Timestamp: 01/12/2016 - 05/12/2016

Data source: GoogleTrends

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Starting from Google search in history topic through we arrived to more specific resource such as basicincome.org. Here was easy to define the most meaningful persons and events participated in creating the defenition of basic income. After the general research take a place to identify the highest spiks in google trends for last years. It’s also important for the comparing with work automaton in the next steps of our project.