Even then, playing kerbal space program does not make you a rocket scientist. It requires a certain dedication to master various physics and mathematics disciplines to contribute to even a part of one, which is itself a significant investment that you won't find possible with UBI alone; there will still need to be some form of dedicated funding through either specific government programs or commercial enterprise.
Salary also has a bit of a sticky effect; people change fields less than jobs, and spend more time in jobs than in funsies hobbies. A rocket designed by a committee of hobbyists will likely perform much like any other design-by-committee process or product.
ROBERT Hughes, the Australian art critic, filmmaker and writer, wandered into the kitchen of his fashionable loft home in New York’s SoHo to see how the plumber was going, setting up his new dishwasher.
On his knees grappling with the machine, the plumber heard a noise and looked up.
Hughes gasped: “My god, you’re Philip Glass. I can’t believe it. What are you doing here?”
Glass, one of the world’s most famous composers, said afterwards: “It was obvious that I was installing his new dishwasher, and I told him I would soon be finished.”
“But you are an artist,” Hughes protested.
Glass said: “I explained that I was an artist but that I was sometimes a plumber as well, and that he should go away and let me finish.”
Fun fact, most historical republics and democracies elected political offices by lottery. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sortition
What is that?
I think allowing people to explore their passions is essential to bringing new ideas into fields, and will likely bring a renaissance to some areas of study, and at least portions of other fields, but I'm at a loss as to how it can help at the forefront of fields that require a lot of investment. Rocketry, for another example. Can anyone make a realistic case that another 10,000, or even 100,000 passionate people could achieve what Space X has over the last few years? I don't doubt they come up with many or all of the same ideas, but the testing of those ideas requires a lot of money.