The Founding Documents
v1.0 Reference Texts
Before proposing v2.0, we must understand v1.0. The original texts remain remarkable achievements - but they were written for a pre-industrial, pre-digital, pre-AI world of 4 million people.
The Declaration of Independence (1776)
📜 Read Full Text (Copyable) → | National Archives →
Key principles that endure:
- "All men are created equal" - though the circle of "men" has expanded
- "Unalienable Rights" - life, liberty, pursuit of happiness
- "Consent of the governed" - legitimacy flows from the people
- "Right to alter or abolish" - the ultimate failsafe
The Constitution (1787)
📜 Read Full Text (Copyable) → | National Archives →
The structural innovation:
- Separation of powers (Executive, Legislative, Judicial)
- Federalism (national + state governments)
- Checks and balances (each branch constrains the others)
- Amendment process (Article V)
The Bill of Rights (1791)
📜 Read Full Text (Copyable) → | National Archives →
The first ten amendments:
- Religion, speech, press, assembly, petition
- Right to bear arms
- No quartering of soldiers
- No unreasonable searches and seizures
- Due process, double jeopardy, self-incrimination
- Speedy trial, impartial jury, counsel
- Jury trial in civil cases
- No cruel and unusual punishment
- Rights retained by the people
- Powers reserved to states/people
GRIN Analysis of v1.0
Applying our framework to the original Constitution:
What v1.0 Got Right (High G, High R)
- Node fertility: Enabled creation of new states, corporations, civic institutions - massive G
- Redundancy: Federalism provided resilience through distributed power
- Error-correction: Separation of powers created checks on extraction
- Adaptability: Amendment process allowed evolution
What v1.0 Got Wrong (Extraction Vulnerabilities)
- Single executive: Single point of failure for authoritarian capture
- Pardon power: No check on self-dealing pardons = extraction enabler
- Amendment difficulty: Rc so high that adaptation is nearly impossible
- Electoral College: Minority rule vulnerability
- Senate malapportionment: Wyoming and California get equal votes
- Lifetime judicial appointments: Ossification risk
The v2.0 Project
The following sections propose targeted updates guided by GRIN principles. We preserve what works while patching the extraction vulnerabilities the Founders could not have foreseen.
The goal is not to rewrite everything - it's to apply the same innovation the Founders showed: design structures that maximize G and R while minimizing extraction pathways.