Basic income programs are gaining momentum nationwide as local governments and nonprofits test this bold alternative to traditional welfare.

If Basic had a domain, it was as a starter language, and there are many candidates to replace it, Fisher says. “The best ‘first language’ is a hot topic of debate,” she says.

Many people, one way or another, got started programming computers using some kind of Basic. The language was developed at Dartmouth specifically so people could write simple programs without much … ...