Contact us at: whispernthunder1@gmail.comArtificial Intelligence & Indigenous Foundations
~ Ron Leith
When I heard the term artificial intelligence
I was intrigued, curious, and maybe a little
skeptical. But the first Red Lake thought
that came to mind was “as if”. As a Red
Laker, the first thing I do is to make fun of it.
AI/As If.
I still have a hard time taking some things seriously, especially when
it comes to anything related to technological society at large. Don’t
get me wrong; I enjoy electricity, the internet, and a smart watch (on
someone else).
But sometimes I think what next, they keep giving boxes of matches to
kids, and there’s going to be a fire. But at the same time, I find
myself, very condescendingly supporting this new gadget. Who knows,
maybe this time they will be able to control it.
But then, as always I conclude no one can control anything, except
maybe their own bus.
After kicking their little box around for a while, I have come up with
a couple of things to assuage my limited understanding.
Wikipedia defines AI as a machine that helps to define goals. Some are
new and some are old and some have become boring and mundane. Fun to
play with I guess.
But from some of the information I’ve read this is not the first time
a civilization has utilized AI. According to sources that may or may
not be completely accepted as genuine sources AI has been used to
accelerate human progress toward one or more universal goals.
Of course, those civilizations are long gone and we are duplicating
work done by others, grandfathering if you will.
But if that’s the case will we do any better than they did with our
advanced technological skills?
Our discoveries and achievements may carve a new and wonderful path or
our toys may end up in the cosmic garbage dump.
But from my Indigenous perspective, I feel as though these systems are
taking people away from our true purpose. As an Indigenous Elder, I
have a lack of faith in any colonialist enterprise where the methods
separate the well-to-do from those with less advantage and less access
to resources of equity. That’s not to say that AI will do that, but
those who will control the bulk of AI may not be the most altruistic
of thinkers.
To think of it from another perspective, as I tend to do, aren’t we a
form of artificial intelligence?
When we are created don’t we have the potential to “define goals” for
ourselves, at a moderate speed of course, but we have been capable of
setting and achieving goals for some time. And maybe that’s the
underlying hope for AI in that they are faster. Well faster to what?
In this case, does speed kill? and might we miss the forest for the
trees and end up caught in a technological quagmire of our own making?
For me, simplicity has its merits, moving forward in a cautionary mode
with safety in mind.
In Red Lake, my home reservation, the practice among traditionalist
practitioners from the Tribal Council to the Medewin Lodge the rule
has been to debate any issue for four days, regardless of the issue.
And to make sure the process is both paternalistic and maternalistic.
Equity in decision-making looks at a problem from many perspectives as
well as intrinsic and spiritual.
But this is an Indigenous practice.
A leap year from today’s technological, drive-thru, misogynistic
laboratory for “progress.”
Maybe I should ask Alexa for another opinion.