All Americans are born into a world that has already figured out how to do so many of the things that need doing. We inherit an absolutely massive body of know-how, handed down from the past. Our ancestors built it up over generations, and we all can contribute to it and carry it forward. Let’s call this treasure our Public Knowledge.
America’s Public Knowledge is stored in places like libraries and electronic databases. Our Public Knowledge lives in the minds of our teachers, parents, farmers, creatives, scientists, and specialists. And we pass it along in our schools, research centers, service organizations, farms, workplaces, and homes.
Our Public Knowledge increases in an open, inclusive, and curious environment. It’s what makes creativity and innovation possible. We start with what’s known, we make new discoveries and develop new techniques, and we produce the new state of the art.
When Americans build anything new—like a computer chip—we draw on a mind-boggling amount of existing know-how. That’s everything from how to turn sand into pure silicon, to how to structure chains of logic, to how to keep a room perfectly free of dust. The “innovation” that makes a computer chip possible is more than 99% existing Public Knowledge and less than 1% new thinking.
Our inheritance of Public Knowledge is extraordinarily valuable. It’s what makes America’s prosperity possible. Putting that body of know-how to use is how we generate much of the Public Gains of America.
But it can take a lot of money to realize the potential of the most advanced Public Knowledge. So individuals team up and pool resources through corporations and governments. That’s how we use the power of Public Knowledge to build a better airplane or to develop a new medical treatment.
No wonder the Counting Class targets Public Knowledge for self gain. A lone Count can wield extreme money to freely use of our advanced Public Knowledge, lock up control of new technologies, and outmatch any competing development. And then he can collect the Public Gains generated by the use of Public Knowledge as his own Free Income.
Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a powerful, automated way to collect and mine Public Knowledge. AI can operate at a giant scale. Counts now use AI to mine much of America’s stock of Public Knowledge, to extract profitable pieces of information.
Public Knowledge is our shared inheritance. Americans can decide to keep good custody of our treasure of know-how. We can commit to public options and guardrails for AI, strengthen public research, and pass our legacy of know-how to the next generation.
On the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Big Woods Declaration (BWD) renews the call for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, free from the corruption of extreme money.
The BWD is a First Amendment petition to the American people and our government. It is not limited to any political party or group.
The BWD is a total of 60 pages: the Core Declaration (4 pages), the 13 Notes, the 27 Dangers to America, and the 16 Solutions for America.
The BWD may be shared and reused under the terms of the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. View a copy of this license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
The BWD was created without the use of any AI, opinion polling, or focus groups. The BWD draws on many core American ideas as well as the work of Thorstein Veblen, America’s visionary from the Big Woods of Minnesota.
All photos in the BWD were taken in the Big Woods. The BWD was framed by Erik Christopher Sahlin with Alyssa Beth Wulf.