Category Archives: Important Ideas

How AI Might Help Shape a Better Future for American Politics

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog
Created March 6, 2026

I’ve been asking AI a lot of questions lately about the American Revolution. I can see it like a movie now. Sort of like the original 1960 Ocean’s Eleven, when we see how the gang comes together like iron filings around a magnetic story arc.

In the real his-and-her-story (formerly known as his story, i.e., history), John Adams got religion first, around 1765, PO’ed by the Stamp Act and Taxation Without Representation.

George Washington, always methodical, gradually shifted his attitude over a period of years, 1769–1774, in increasing indignation against the British treatment of Americans as inferior. The major stimuli included trade restrictions and the Coercive Acts. But there was also a personal matter. He had joined the British Army, and because he was American, he was given the rank of Brevet Captain instead of full Captain. Apparently, his mother had rankled him all his young life with put-downs, which made him extra sensitive in his adult life to treatment like that.

Thomas Jefferson was drawn into the revolutionary mindset ~1774 (the turning point year, as we shall see in a moment) by the issues of infringement on natural rights and self-governance.

Alexander Hamilton joined the movement in 1774, spurred by political unrest in New York and the Continental Congress.

Benjamin Franklin was the last of this group to join. He spent decades in London trying to bridge the gap between the colonies and the Crown. He truly believed the British Empire could be saved. The turning point was the “Hutchinson Letters Affair” (1774), where he was publicly humiliated by British officials. He realized reconciliation was impossible and sailed home in March 1775, arriving in Philadelphia just after the battles of Lexington and Concord, ready to serve the rebellion.

Thomas Paine joined the American revolutionary movement upon arriving in Philadelphia from England on November 30, 1774. Recommended by Franklin, Paine quickly immersed himself in colonial politics, publishing his influential, pro-independence pamphlet Common Sense on January 10, 1776, which galvanized support for the revolution.

The American Revolution was primarily influenced by Enlightenment philosophers, most notably John Locke, whose theories on natural rights (life, liberty, property) and the social contract directly shaped the Declaration of Independence. Other key influences included Montesquieu (separation of powers), Rousseau (popular sovereignty), and Thomas Paine (republicanism). Most of the Founders themselves also wrote brilliant philosophical treatises. If we had leaders today who were as creative in thinking about the future, we would probably not be in the current mess.

Enter AI.

The USA is a representative democracy, and this worked for almost 250 years, but it is showing signs of wear. The necessity for representatives was obvious all this time because there was no way for all of us to vote every day on every big and little decision and still get anything else done, like producing goods and services, inventing things, defending the nation, etc.

AI does change this. It would be possible for each of us to tell AI everything we want government to do and not do, every day, as the spirit moves us. AI could combine all this input from ~325 million people, knowing which ones are adults and eligible to vote, which ones are citizens but minors, which ones are immigrants not eligible to vote. AI could provide summaries of what We, The People want continuously to the government at all levels, as well as to the press and to educators and back to all of us.

This would seem to be a highly probable eventuality at some point. It might start very soon as unofficial experimentation and perhaps as a more constructive channeling of the shouting match we call social media.

This would use a lot of computing power and have a high carbon footprint and possibly lead to some breakthroughs in clean energy sources.

Rooting out biases in AI and the need for continuous fact checking would be crucial in such a system.

Bad actors would focus on political cybermanipulation. Good agents of the Justice and Intel systems would work to keep them from ruining a good thing.

But wait! How would this be better than polling? Doesn’t polling serve this function already?

Polling is limited to the ideas which are already on the table. The AI method would pick up creative new ideas even if only one person came up with them. In fact the national governmental AI should not be a single AI but a collegial team of AIs looking at the same data from many viewpoints, some looking for new ideas, some fact checking, some looking for historical precedents, and so on.

Polling has another problem of representativeness. The response rate to polling is typically under 10%, suggesting a very large nonresponse bias. Pew and other sources taken together suggest that something like 87% of Americans use social media, implying a willingness to key in at least a few words every now and then. The AI scenario envisioned here would be voice driven rather than requiring keystrokes, which would also be an option. In order to maximize engagement, the government could offer modest tax rebates based of the degree of contribution to the ideas of the nation.

We would still need representatives and the rest of government at all levels to carry out the wishes of the people. In fact, the mess we are in now is only slightly the result of imperfections in the system the Founders designed, and a much larger factor is the imperfections of the people in that system.

If we elected people who were of good character, devoted to the good of the many, more of us would vote.

“Using data from the University of Florida Election Lab, a new analysis by the Environmental Voter Project shows that 85.9 million eligible voters skipped the 2024 general election, far surpassing the 76.8 million ballots cast for Donald Trump or the 74.3 million for Kamala Harris.

If “Did Not Vote” had been a presidential candidate, they would have beaten Donald Trump by 9.1 million votes, and they would have won 21 states, earning 265 electoral college votes to Trump’s 175 and Harris’s 98.” This quote from the Environmental Voter Project website.

The party system was not included in the U.S. Constitution. It actually started as a result of the greatly differing visions of Hamilton and Jefferson. Hamilton wanted a strong federal government and industrial development in order to make the U.S.A. a major world power. Jefferson wanted more of an agrarian distributed nation. Hamilton’s views spawned the Federalist Party, and Jefferson’s gave birth to the Republican Democratic Party. The two men, although at odds ideologically, were able to work together and make deals such as the one which created the first national bank and led to what is today the Fed.

The Party system today is essential to get Presidential candidates to be known to the public, a costly affair because advertising is not free. In the future, it is conceivable that a different system might emerge in which the media charge nothing for political advertising (which would increase the cost of advertising to all the other categories by less than 3%).

Schools ought to bring back civics classes and inspire some students to become dedicated public servants motivated by non-ego, non-money, and non-power motivations. People who are of that ilk who want to run for office ought to be lifted up by even the small set of early supporters they find. Social media provides a way for the bubble up from grassroots method to be potentially viable. If the product (the candidate) is authentic enough and of high character, a noble human being like the Founders, for all their human flaws, he or she will go viral. The new mayor of New York is an example of what can happen (I do not know enough to say anything pro or con about his character; time will tell, let’s give him a fair chance), but he did rise rather rapidly from obscurity.

Times look dark when creativity has not been fully leveraged yet. There are more possible outcome scenarios than appear to be on the table based on the loud megaphones of the two parties and limited time each day for creative thought and imagination. AI and HI (Human Intelligence) together in harmony can overcome all messes.

Even in Uncivil War, Can We Agree On Some Things?

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog
Created February 13, 2026

George Washington

This July 4th is the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. The USA has been around for a quarter of a millennium. The longest running Noble Experiment in Self Rule by The People. Often referred to in the past as the Greatest Hope For The World.

And yet these are among our darkest hours, on a par with the Civil War, the War of Independence, and the early days of WWII, when we were not sure we could win it. Another one of those times when the continued existence of the USA as conceived by The Founders is not guaranteed.

We have not had many of these existential threat periods in our history. Only a few of us alive today were there the last time this happened, which was the dark period between December 7, 1941 (Pearl Harbor) and February 2, 1943 (the battle of Stalingrad). The Allied victories at El Alamein and the battle of Midway, followed by Stalingrad, turned the tide and made us feel certain we were going to win, surely at terrible cost in lives.

We are back in one of those situations again, perhaps the worst of all, because we are internally at war with ourselves, as in the Civil War. But this time it seems to go much deeper than in the Union vs. Confederacy war. Is it because of the mind-bending media we now have, which are being used intentionally and unintentionally to divide us? The race issue is still a part of it, but now there appear to be many more issues which divide us. Is one key difference between the Civil War and today’s internal polarization that we now face a horde of irreconcilable issues?

I wonder. It’s conceivable that we are closer together than we realize on a great many (not all) issues. What puts the venom in the situation is the divided loyalties caused by the existence of two teams that have always been rivals, and that rivalry in recent decades has become increasingly bitter (see quote from George Washington at the top of this article).

If We The People still want to rule ourselves, and if we are dissatisfied with both political parties to some extent, can we set aside the teams for a while and just talk amongst ourselves about the issues? (Thanks to Bob DeSena for his ongoing emphasis on issues, without which I might not have gotten this idea.)

But let’s not look at that one idea as a panacea. It’s likely that even when discussing the issues, there will be a tendency to flare up when it becomes evident that one’s party has a very different vision on that issue than the other party. It will be difficult for people to be able to separate party loyalties from the issues. In higher states of consciousness (Observer state and Flow state), one can perform this trick, but in the default network state of Emergency Oversimplification Procedure (EOP), automatic reactions will follow ingrained patterns.

So what can we do to bring us all back together again?

It’s still worth thinking creatively about issues, and sharing any innovative ideas in social media, with your government representatives, and with your friends, family, and acquaintances. Good ideas tend to bubble up in the zeitgeist. Don’t look for getting credit for your good ideas, spread them unselfishly for the good they may do, and be satisfied if they get a public hearing, even though no one remembers it was your idea.

The political discourse has, in my lifetime, been plagued by a paucity of creative new ideas. It always seems to be the same old ideas recirculated again and again. People want a change from that.

There is something else we can all do, which will have a positive effect even though it may sound like magical thinking.

Imagine the two warring sides gradually, like a giant zipper that has been unable to zip closed, finally slowly closing, one click at a time, as the two sides see ways to agree on one little thing at a time. Picture how it might happen. Two people discussing one of our many problems and somehow, between them, converging on common ground solutions that have never been tried or even thought of before.

Outside of politics, these Aha moments happen every day. People are more creative than ever before. Thirty million Americans are now Creators; everyone is writing books, blogs, doing podcasts, and we are more creative now than ever before. Let’s bring politics into the creativity game. It doesn’t have to be a sad show forever. It wasn’t a sad show to be a patriotic American for a quarter of a millennium. It has only been sad for a little while, and we are feeling like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. That feeling itself can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Undo that feeling.

Here’s what some of our Presidents said about these subjects, worth remembering in honor of Presidents’ Day:

John Adams, the second President of the USA:

“The happiness of society is the end [goal] of government.”

“There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.”

James Madison:
“The Constitution is the guide which I will never abandon.”

James Monroe:
“The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil.”

“A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.”

“National honor is national property of the highest value.”

John Quincy Adams:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

“’Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.”

Andrew Jackson:
“Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred.”

“As long as our government is administered for the good of the people… it will be worth defending.”

“Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.”

Abraham Lincoln:
“The struggle of today is not altogether for today – it is for a vast future also.”

“It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so far nobly advanced.”

“With malice towards none, with charity for all… let us strive on to finish the work we are in.”

Thomas Jefferson

Love to all,
Bill

 

POWERFUL MIND 12 Simple Keys
available February 16

POWERFUL MIND 12 Simple Keys by Bill Harvey

The Discoverers of Quantum Physics Concluded that the Universe Is Made of Consciousness

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Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog
Created February 6, 2026

It’s fascinating to do deep dives into the people who created our modern world, though unlocking the secrets of quantum physics. It came as a huge surprise to me that the originators had the idea I thought was mine, the idea that the universe is itself a single consciousness.

When I say that it was mine, what I really mean is that I thought no one in the modern world had come up with it before. I learned long ago that the same idea was the core of Advaita Vedanta, going back possibly as far as 6000 BC in proto-Dravidian lore, and more developed by Kashmir Shaivism in the 11th Century AD. Before I studied such things, the idea came to me first when I was 12 years old, in a way that made no sense to me. When I was 32 years old, my complete theory of the conscious universe put itself together in my mind.

If quantum theory had never been put together by these folks, today we would not have smartphones, personal computers, tablets, and if we had computers, they would be gigantic and unbelievably slow, and only the biggest companies could afford them.

Max Planck, the originator of quantum theory, said, “I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness.”

Erwin Schrodinger provided quantum theory with an equation to calculate the wave function of a system, such as a hydrogen atom. He coined the term “quantum entanglement,” which explains how particles that were once together share information instantaneously (faster than light) ever afterward, no matter how far apart they are. He said, “The total number of minds in the universe is one.”

Werner Heisenberg, whose famous principle is that we cannot know both the position and the vector of a subatomic particle, stated, “Any observation is an interaction that influences the system being observed.” In other words, the act of a consciousness observing something changes the something which is being observed. This is not the same as saying that the whole universe is one single consciousness, but it is saying that consciousness has a similar effect to touching something – what classical physics regarded as “spooky action at a distance” and ruled as impossible.

John Archibald Wheeler took this idea further in his Participatory Anthropic Principle, which was endorsed by Stephen Hawking. This principle states that all that exists in itself consists of probability waves, which observation by consciousness, causes the wave function to collapse into material existence.

Albert Einstein did not accept the idea that the universe came about by accident because he saw immense intelligence and rapturous beauty in the universe that pointed to a Creator.

Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Gustav Jung proposed a common reality underlying both the physical and conscious realms. They saw synchronicity, meaningful coincidences without a causal link, as a possible manifestation of this underlying unity of mind and matter.

All of these great minds have had stupendous influence on shaping the world in which we live, and yet the world has not been told about their beliefs about the nature of reality. All we have learned in school and through the media about these people relates to their technological implications.

Why does that matter?

It matters because the general public thinks that science has ruled out the possibility of God. That is the impression that is left in the mind by the way the culture has assimilated the equations left behind by these great thinkers. Certainly most scientists today are biased to believe in materialistic accidentalism, or what they call “Physicalism”. Yet the greatest physicists of all time, who were miles ahead of most scientists in their understanding of what makes the universe tick, all considered consciousness to be fundamentally tied in with the actions of the physical realm. The originator of quantum theory, Max Planck stated it most bluntly, “matter derives from consciousness.”

The important thing is that science very definitely leaves room for God in the sense of an umbrella consciousness connecting us all – entangling us together into one entity.

One mammoth mind with so much computing power as to be able to pay attention through your eyes and mine and an infinite number of other “vessels”. A cosmic role-playing video game with one Player playing all the roles.

When you look inside and consider “your own self”, is that actually The One Self there looking at the world through your eyes? In deepest meditation, one is sometimes lucky enough to reach the place where one is just the experiencer, not identifying with the thoughts and feelings that are arising, invulnerable to anything that might happen, and reverberating with an all-encompassing love and joy.

Why is any of this relevant to what is going on in the world today, which might distress all of us? Is there a solution in here somewhere?

Yes. If we wipe our minds clean of all prior assumptions and start our lives anew right now, with our minds open to the possibility that Planck and Jesus and countless other sages are right, that we are all part of a cosmic playland, we can forgive each other for messes made of things which we have all unintentionally contributed to. We can lift the spirits of the people around us that the universe is teaching us a lesson we needed to learn, and although it is painful, it will make us better. We need to work our way through it without focus on blaming because that only makes things worse. Instead of getting stuck in blaming, we need to figure out how to steer toward win/win solutions that will get us out of the mess.

We all have people who represent us in government, we all have email, we all have a few minutes a day to suggest actions to our representatives by email (if we have more time and the inclination, phone is even more effective). Let them know daily what your suggestions are. Keep it up until you see the change you want begin to happen. Be patient, it takes miles to turn around an aircraft carrier, and this situation is much more massive than a carrier.

Beyond the world situation, spend most of your time enjoying the moment. If it is a work moment, put your heart and soul into your work. If you would rather be doing some other kind of work, use the evenings and weekends to plan your life change and then execute it carefully.

Enjoy life itself: nature, children, loved ones, friends, conversations, foods, experiences, explorations, curiosity and learning (use search and AI!), exercise, bathing, dressing well, the stars, smelling, breathing, looking around, taking it all in, looking at it from the possibly cosmic point of view of One Self.

Do things that are good for all parties and watch what happens. Listen for and look for inner clues and hunches that could be coming from the universe or from your own deepest, highest self.

Open your mind to all possibilities and discard all the bias baggage. Restore the awe and wonder you felt as a child. See the potential good in each moment, even if there is a blatant threat. How can you steer it toward the good outcome you can see?

See a presentation on this subject

 Watch a one-hour video about this topic

Watch a ten-minute video about my life growing up and having these thoughts

Love to all,
Bill

 

Feature image: “The Universe Is Consciousness” by Christine K. Niver

POWERFUL MIND 12 Simple Keys
will be out in February

POWERFUL MIND 12 Simple Keys by Bill Harvey

Change the Way Your Mind Does Business

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Powerful Mind Part 13

Welcome to this week’s Bill Harvey Blog.
Updated June 27, 2025. Created June 2, 2023

Read Powerful Mind Part 12              |              See all 12 Powerful Mind Keys

Perhaps there is nothing after death. Perhaps consciousness goes on after death of the body. There are many ways in which this could be possible. Consciousness is information being internally communicated within an experience of “self”. That “self” might change after death, or not. Science has not ruled any of this out. Most of us tacitly assume that these things are unscientific because religion has considered them, and as we all know, science and religion have historically been at odds. So the mind leaps to the hasty closure that these considerations about the self, consciousness, death, and so on are unscientific, questions that science cannot answer. Instead, it is this hasty closure process that is itself unscientific. Science is all about holding to open-minded objectivity until there is evidence one way or another.

Here’s an experiment:
Consider that you do not “know” anything. Wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. Reconsider all of your old beliefs. Do this systematically, in times you are alone. Treat it as a game. Come back to the game from time to time until you feel you have exhausted the game and reached its end.

When possible, write down as single words or very short phrases some of your beliefs, things you have believed are true up until this moment of reconsideration. Don’t try to get them all at once — more will come to you over time, and you can add them to this list as they arise. All you really need to get started is any one belief you hold. For example, “Government is corrupt”, “Big Business is corrupt”, “We have but one life to live”, “Look out for yourself”, and so on.

Cross-examine yourself as to where this belief came from and what evidence you have to justify believing in it.

Ask yourself if you can imagine proving this belief one way or the other. What would be necessary? Imagine the scene in which you have proof that it is true, then imagine the scene in which you have proof that it is false. What would such proof consist of?

If you can’t prove the belief is true or false right now, ask yourself if you have a need to hold on to this belief. Does it serve a useful function? Does this belief do something for you?

Contemplate where the belief came from. One of your parents? Someone who had a great influence on you? Do you maintain this belief to gain the sense of having that person’s approval now? (As ridiculous as that is, but more on that later.)

Try on for size the possibility that you no longer need to have this belief, nor do you need to actively disbelieve it. See how that feels inside.

When you have run this game through to its goal, you will have reopened your mind to all possibilities and will no longer have any of the keys in your mental computer keyboard stuck down. You will be able to take events as they come and see them as they are without imposing on them any prejudgments or forcing them into any preconceived molds. You will hear what the other person is really saying rather than hearing what you expect them to say.

You will have outsmarted hasty closure.

Common Sense

Following are common practices known for millennia to most everyone, though few actually practice them as a result of Acceleritis. They differ from the techniques described above in that these are relatively obvious. What is not obvious is their great value in supporting the quest for higher states of awareness:

Planning/Preparation

In a hurried, rushing world, impatience is almost guaranteed. You can tell yourself not to be impatient, but this admonition will have no force if life catches you unprepared for each day’s challenges. Don’t let yourself go to sleep until you have contemplated the likely events of the next day and prepared yourself with contingency tactics for different ways things could go with the people and situations you could meet with the next day. This way, you will be as prepared as you can be, and this will make it more likely that you can actually achieve some degree of patience tomorrow. With adequate preparation the night before, you will be less distractable and therefore more likely to shift into Flow state, where you will be traveling at the “speed of life”.

Priority Order

At most times, you will have more than one item competing for your attention: new emails, someone pops into your office, and besides all that, you were trying to work on something. This causes frustration and helps fuel impatience. It’s best to focus all attention on one thing at a time, to get the highest quality, most lasting result. This implies a fast selection process to determine which item deserves attention first. The way you make this decision reveals a lot about you. Are you trying to curry favor, or are you overhauling a company; are you doing the easiest things, or giving priority to helping people?

If you can agree with yourself on how to prioritize, it will put most of your daily attention and time on achieving the things that are most significant in life.

Patience/Quality/Appreciation

Did your mother or father ever say to you, “Take a deep breath and count to ten”? This is actually very practical advice. It is a way of avoiding hasty closure. And it is a way of instilling patience in yourself. It’s also helpful to remember that life is like a pearl necklace. It’s made of moments — the pearls — and all we ever have is the present moment in which to extract enjoyment and to show our quality. Making each moment precious. This is the real value of patience. We give our all to the moment, we are at our best, and we are taking as much pleasure out of the moment as we can. With the more difficult moments, that pleasure may not seem so pleasant; the pleasure then is in being interested in what is going on, and seeing what we can learn, which may make future moments of this kind more actually pleasant.

Objective Skepticism (Reasonable Doubt)

In science and in law, the only thing that ultimately counts is proof. Too bad so many of us do not realize this is also true in life itself. Before deciding that something is good or bad, or what to do about it, make sure you question yourself to see if you have anything proven to go on. Don’t accept evidence that wouldn’t stand up in a court of law. If you don’t have proof, proceed cautiously, and on the fair basis of “innocent until proven guilty”. Don’t accept hearsay. Make sure that your own empirical experience is your basis for proof of anything.

And don’t forget to breathe. Just breathe.

These platitudinous-sounding bits of common sense advice really work. Don’t avoid getting their benefit simply out of intellectual snobbery.

Yet these gems of ancient wisdom do not do the whole job. They effectively support, but do not change your consciousness. For that, you must profoundly change the way your mind does business.

Trial-doubt your own last thought/feeling.
This is radical new mental strategy #1, the
first simple key to the doorway of the upper mind.

 

Love to all,
Bill

 

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