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Thank you, Dr. Adriana Marina, founder of Hecho por Nosotros and Animana for inviting me to be part of this event. I am not an expert on artisanal intelligence or artificial intelligence. My background is in community development, local governance, decentralization, organizational development, innovative leadership, mindfulness practices, and compassionate action. I hope to learn from this event.
In my remarks, I would like to focus on how to scale up ancestral knowledge and indigenous wisdom. I am grateful for having lived and worked in traditional villages in South Korea, Venezuela and Oklahoma where I encountered the wisdom of the local people and their cultures. On the island of Jeju do in Korea, I was touched by centuries of honoring people and the land. In Venezuela, I learned how Venezuelans with ancestors from west Africa had much to offer their village and country.
In Oklahoma, I lived for two years in a small town of the Comanche tribe. In a Festival of Hometowns which our nonprofit held with the community, I was touched by Comanche customs, dances and styles of being. I had not been familiar with Native American traditions. Suddenly, I was living and dancing them in a Comanche ceremony.
Indigenous wisdom includes much that is of critical importance to humans in the 21st century. We must rediscover that we are part of the living Earth along with other animals, and insects, plants, fungi, soil, minerals, water and air. Earth is not only our mother, but we are part of her body.
Indigenous myths and stories often present the ideal, just society not as a utopian future, but as a blueprint given by the Creator. Rather than top-down governments, these narratives emphasize radical equality, consensus-based decision-making, and a deep moral obligation to share resources without the expectation of reward.
For example, the Cherokee people have a story of the “Unseen Helpers.” Rooted in the values of the Cherokee Nation, this story illustrates a society where selflessness and hospitality are the highest cultural virtues. The story follows a pair of kind, humble brothers who freely share their hunted food with a starving, lazy family in their village without demanding payment or recognition. The narrative teaches that compassion and unselfish giving are the ultimate moral obligations, reflecting the Creator’s free gifts to humanity. The culture views generosity as the marker of a healthy, just community.
Indigenous wisdom can help lead modern society to achieve ecological regeneration, participatory democracy, social justice and peace making.
If we cannot do this and if we continue to destroy the Earth’s natural ecosystems and species, we will make life on Earth more and more difficult for all living beings. Our indigenous sisters and brothers can lead us and show us how to be responsible, humble, caring Earthlings.
As for Artificial Intelligence, we humans must ensure that AI has public governance and supervision and is safe, that it doesn’t use too much electricity and water, that it makes compensation for people’s intellectual rights, that it doesn’t de-skill people’s thinking and writing, that it doesn’t take away people’s jobs and income, and that it provides a universal basic income (UBI) for all people.
We need to pass legislation that ensures that AI is not harming people and nature. We must limit the number of AI data centers. We need to pass legislation that makes AI companies owned in part by the public as Sen. Bernie Sanders in the US and others have recently proposed. Educators and parents can limit the use of AI in schools and at home. We need to pass legislation that ensures that people have employment and/or financial compensation in any case.
If we use AI in an ethical and equitable manner, we can expand the impact of indigenous wisdom at this critical time of climate disasters, ecocide, oligarchic fascism, armed conflict and wealth inequality. The founders of the US were influenced by indigenous governance practices that they encountered in North America. My hope is that this can be brought more and more into the mainstream of good governance practices around the world. (Image below by Hari Srinivas)
My recommendations are to:
1. Use AI with the permission of and in dialogue with indigenous communities. We can discuss AI with indigenous leaders and groups to see how they would like to use AI in their own conversations and planning and to communicate their wisdom and practices to other groups.
2. Strengthen indigenous governance processes and share them with other communities. We can identify and honor indigenous methods of collective decision-making and action. We can share these methods online, through AI, in mass media, in face-to-face gatherings and in public policy making.
3. Identify the practices and styles of indigenous leadership. If indigenous leaders agree, we can strengthen their leadership with group facilitation, social artistry, integral thinking and mindfulness. Indigenous leaders can be offered training in participatory methods of discussion and planning, in creative practices enhancing sensory, psychological, mythic and unitive dimensions, in integral frameworks of interior and exterior, and individual and collective dimensions, and in practices of mindful breathing and walking. We can use AI and the internet to share these practices widely.
4. Conduct participatory community development in indigenous communities utilizing group facilitation of strategic planning and implementation. Communities can be asked what their hopes and dreams are, what obstacles they face, and what strategies and actions would deal with those obstacles and move them toward their future vision. We need to use AI and online technologies to promote these methods.
I have used participatory, creative leadership methods around the world in remote villages and in low-income urban communities. People love to participate and discover that as a group they have more wisdom than as isolated individuals.
I would like to thank each of you for what you are doing and contributing in this challenging time. And thank you again, Adriana and your team, for your leadership in this endeavor.
May all beings flourish as part of the living Earth, and realize peace, happiness, understanding and compassion. Breathing in Earth air, and breathing out Earth air, may we be safe and healthy, and offer our contributions to the Earth community through compassionate actions that help relieve the suffering of all beings.
May it be so.
…………………………….
If you are able and willing, please upgrade to paid subscriber and support the creation of my books, articles, videos, Zoom presentations, podcasts and website. Thank you!
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