Decolonising Technological Futures: A dialogical tryptich between Te Haumoana White, Ruth Irwin, and Tegmark’s Artificial Intelligence

Enhancing Artificial Intelligence with Indigenous Wisdom

“…By focusing solely on accomplishing the task at hand and treating AI as a mere tool for accomplishing that task, the wisdom of the task can be blissfully ignored as a matter for philosophers and politicians or, in practical reality, corporate managers. After all, "[t]he computer science community who advocate AI seem to have little understanding of political theory [and] political economics outside the tired and outdated neoliberal paradigm" (Irwin & White, 2019).…”

“…Thus, while AI is increasingly useful, "many aspects of the human experience that are associated uniquely with our species Homo sapiens ("wise humans") do not have analogues in the world of machine intelligence," and so the notion that humans will one day be fully surpassed by computers may be science fiction fantasy (Braga & Logan, 2017). Nevertheless, "[AI] is a very useful tool for elites, whether governments or corporations … it is another powerful weapon in the history of late capitalism and it is often being used in the service of exploitative extraction rather than the good of the ecosystem and communities" (Irwin & White, 2019).…”

“…Many Indigenous peoples have concepts similar to hozho which recognize how humans are an equal and integral part of local ecologies rather than being related merely as subject and object (Irwin & White, 2019). For example, in Lakota relational ontology there is the concept of mitakuye oyasin ("everything is related") and there arises a "'sense of responsibility [or kinship] toward every individual dealt with,' including humans and non-humans" (Maitra, 2020: p. 324, citing Hughes, 1996and quoting Deloria, 1998.…”

“…For example, in Lakota relational ontology there is the concept of mitakuye oyasin ("everything is related") and there arises a "'sense of responsibility [or kinship] toward every individual dealt with,' including humans and non-humans" (Maitra, 2020: p. 324, citing Hughes, 1996and quoting Deloria, 1998. Maori philosophy also includes a taxonomy of relationships defined as a genealogy of connection, or whakapapa, in which humans are one species embedded in a network of familial relations with ecological place (Irwin & White, 2019). Brown discussed the "Iwi Algorithm" which seeks to embed Maori cultural values in AI decision-making and thereby learn from the past to inform the technology that will define the future (Brown, 2019).…”

How Futures Studies and Foresight Could Address Ethical Dilemmas of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

“…To deal with the lack of futures studies in less advanced countries, collaborative networks among academics from different nations seem to be part of a potential solution, particularly in places in which foresight studies are well behind. However, these networks must surpass additional asymmetries, such as unequal resource allocation, and increasing institutional duties among scholars from less advanced nations (Schmidt and Neuburger 2017, 63), to avoid the repetition of postcolonial, hierarchical, and hegemonic ways to reproduce a colonialized future (Irwin and Haumoana White 2019; Sardar 1993).…”