I bet if you asked in a survey of people that if you were given a UBI that covered all your expenses and needs what would you do? It would be perfection of the self or art. Both of these are what is practicing and learning math.
If I was a multi-millionaire, learning lots of math on my free time would be one of the things I would pursue while chilling at my beach house.
> art same as entertainment
Could you volunteer me how much time you spend on it? And how is your day job?
> my pursuit of other things like cryptography, better algorithms, and understanding physics is limited by my primitive understanding of mathematics.
Could you volunteer why you would want to learn these subjects? Is it your day job or is it something you would like to pursue in the future.
> If I was a multi-millionaire, learning lots of math on my free time would be one of the things I would pursue while chilling at my beach house.
I said UBI
I want to learn those subjects because I enjoy learning and understanding. Life should be lived with knowledge applied through wisdom.
> Could you volunteer me how much time you spend on it? And how is your day job?
On entertainment? I can't tell you, I like to watch a movie or a tv show whenever I have time for it. There are more enjoyable pursuits in life, and most worthy pursuits involve adversity and require perseverance.
Hm? That is exactly why UBI works, no? As the name indicates, the bare minimum is taken care so that you can work towards "the best life possible for our loved ones" without worrying about starving, sickness or homelessness.
In contrast, if you were wrong and people would be content with the bare minimum, then UBI would be a bad idea. Though then they could just commit some felonies and be content with having a cell, bread and water for the rest of their lives, no?
There's a difference between what your human brain would become accustomed to (which you'd be right, it'd scale up and up forever) versus what would allow the base level of health and opportunity. As in, not having to worry about eating the next day.
And because you're right that human brains strive for more wealth, UBI should grant you the opportunity to pursue it without fear of failure.
UBI would relieve stress for the lowest earning people, but it won't result in pursuit of passion for most people. economically speaking, because most people can afford certain things (like rent) the price of those things will go up, things are priced based on what potential consumers are willing to pay. If rent costs $1000 for a specific type of unit, but suddenly everyone on UBI can afford that easily, the landlord would raise the rent, the cost of things won't remain static when wages rise for a large portion of the population. Increased demand without increased cost is loss of potential revenue. The quality of life for people on UBI would be barely surviving, and UBI would need to increase constantly to keep people from becoming homeless or starving.
This is the "Cobra effect" embodied. It provides a perverse incentive. healthcare in the US is out of control for this reason. health care providers keep increasing cost, because the patient is not the client, the insurance company is, so long as everyone is getting insurance, the cost of care is the maximum reliably predictable pay out by the insurance company. Not increasing cost is just bad business. You will have to also force all kinds of businesses from raising prices if it can work, and even when it works UBI will result in subsidizing low-wager workers for businesses, because they'll still have to work some job to afford anything outside of food,shelter and the basics.
A practical alternative to UBI is a local tax on businesses, kind of like a property tax but this tax is based on an inverse of an assessment of wages, rent, welfare pay out and other social conditions in the area. the higher wages are, lower rent is,etc.. the lower the tax is, it might even result in a credit. An inverse of a perverse incentive like UBI. Unemployment would also be partially funded through this, the unemployed would forever get a UBI like pay out so long as they are pursuing education or work of some kind based on what is in demand in their area. Businesses get a healthy talent pool to choose from and cost of living is balanced.
In short, it is silly to expect UBI to be a means by which people would work only if they want to work, and they would pursue their passions and dreams instead. That kind of a society I think is possible, but it would also have to reach a level of wealth where money itself is not required (think star trek).
I think it is misleading to call that scenario UBI and that the rest of your post also shares barely any resemblance to actual UBI plans, goals or side effects.