We have spent the last few insights walking through the shadows, identifying the specific "glitches" in the system that keep our beautiful Taitokerau in a state of artificial scarcity. It can feel overwhelming to realise just how deep the "Babylonian" operating system goes—it is in our laws, our bank accounts, our schools, and even our digital feeds. But there is a profound power in naming the beast. Once you see the tools for what they are—obsolete, high-entropy software—they lose their grip on your reality.

Babylon is a high-entropy engine. In physics, entropy is the measure of disorder, and Babylon stays "ordered" only by extracting the life force (Mauri) from our land and people and exporting it elsewhere. Whether it is exporting raw logs (embodied energy) or scraping our language to train global Al (digital flesh), the goal is the same: to leave us with the residue of disorder while the empire thrives on our order.

We often think of the internet as a "free" space where we share our stories, our photos, and our language. But in the age of Artificial Intelligence, the cloud has become a new frontier for extraction. Just as the land was once taken under the lie of Terra Nullius, our knowledge is now being mined to fuel machines that don't belong to us. Today, we are deconstructing Tool #6 of Babylon: Digital Colonialism and the Extraction of the Digital Flesh.

In Research Report #224, we identify Data as the "new whenua". Just as land was the primary asset of the 19th century, data is the raw material for the 21st-century economy. Global tech corporations practice Digital Colonialism by scraping Indigenous languages, art, and Whakapapa without consent to train Large Language Models (LLMs).

We conceptualise this unconsented data as Digital Flesh—a commodification of the ancestors that strips knowledge of its relational context and Mauri. This is a "Bad Explanation" that treats our culture as a dead resource rather than a living expression of our people. By removing the "Indigenous" from the training data, these algorithms act as a filter for automated erasure.

Have you ever been scrolling through social media and stumbled across a post claiming that Māori weren't the first people here? Maybe you've heard whispers of "hidden" stone walls in the forest or "ancient Celtic skeletons" that the government is supposedly covering up. It sounds like a mystery novel, but in reality, it is a high-entropy "Psy-Op" designed to shake your foundation. Today, we are deconstructing Tool #4 of Babylon: Imperial Theology and the Metaphysical Assault.

In Research Report #224, we identify Imperial Theology as a tool of pacification. It isn't just about what is preached in a church; it is about the distortion of our history and spirit to serve colonial control. One of the most insidious versions of this today is the "White Tangata Whenua" myth.

This myth claims that a pre-Māori European or Celtic civilisation existed in Aotearoa and was displaced by Māori.

• The Mechanism: This is a "Bad Explanation" designed to create a false equivalence. It suggests that if everyone is a "coloniser," then the British colonisation of the 1800s is somehow justified.

• The Entropy: Thermodynamically, this generates massive disorder (Entropy). It attempts to sever the entangled relationship between Māori and our history, breaking our will to resist by making us doubt our own Whakapapa.

Have you ever wondered why, in our own home, we are often treated like "guests" who have to ask for permission to use our own water or manage our own land? It feels like the ground was shifted beneath our feet long before we were born. That is because it was. Today, we are deconstructing Tool #3 of Babylon: The Doctrine of Discovery, the foundational myth that tried to render our ancestors—and our very souls—invisible.

In Research Report #224, we identify the Doctrine of Discovery as the "metaphysical root" of colonisation. It started in the 15th century with Papal Bulls that gave European monarchs a "divine right" to invade and subdue any lands not ruled by Christians. This doctrine created the legal fiction of Terra Nullius—the idea that the land was "void" or "nobody’s land." 

This wasn't just a land grab; it was an ontological erasure. It posited that Indigenous peoples didn't have the "reason" or "sovereignty" required to own anything. In Taitokerau, this tool still lives in the way the Crown asserts "Radical Title" over our whenua, assuming ultimate ownership by default while we are forced to "claim" our customary rights.

Have you ever noticed how the system tries to convince you that you are standing all alone? Whether it is a bank teller treating you like a credit score, a legal document defining your land as a "parcel" of dead matter, or a social media feed making you feel like an isolated island, the message is the same: you are separate. Separate from your neighbor, separate from the river, and separate from your ancestors. This is not just a "feeling." It is the result of a 400-year-old software glitch called the Newtonian Error.

In Research Report #224, we deconstruct Tool #1 of the Babylonian operating system: The Newtonian Error. This is the outdated belief, based on 17th-century physics, that the universe is just a collection of separate "billiard balls" interacting only through force. When this "Bad Explanation" was applied to our law and economy, it created a world of fragmentation.

Whānau have been asking what they can do to get involved and support the project. My response: the most vital things we can all do in the short term are:

1. Look after our own wellbeing and that of our whānau and neighbours

2. Upskill for the new reality

3. Start deconstructing Babylon in our own lives

I’ve decided to do a series of reflective insights on Item 3, explaining what Babylon is, how it started, why it exists in Taitokerau, who benefits from its existence, and why we might want to deconstruct it. We will then look at the "Tools of Babylon" and how we can counter them in our everyday lives. This series is based on my Research Report #224: The Tools Of Babylon - A Forensic Deconstruction And Counter-Strategy.