STRATEGIC PAPER #119 - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE THROUGH THE LENS OF TE ŌHANGA MAURI
The global technological landscape is currently traversing a critical event horizon, a moment of profound historical and ontological magnitude best understood as the Epistemological Singularity. This report, commissioned to analyse the environmental and cultural impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) through the specific lens of Te Ōhanga Mauri (The Economy of Life Force), posits that Indigenous nations stand at a crossroads. For nearly two centuries, the dominant global operating system—classified here as "Babylonian"—has been predicated on extraction, individualism, and the commodification of the natural world. This system is now manifesting its terminal phase through the deployment of hyperscale Artificial Intelligence, a technology that, in its current configuration, functions as a high-entropy "Leaky Bucket," extracting vast quantities of energy, water, and cultural data to produce simulacra of diminishing returns.1
The central inquiry of this strategic analysis is whether the environmental and cultural risks associated with this technology necessitate a strategy of abstinence (refusal to use) or engagement (strategic adaptation). Through a rigorous thermodynamic and ontological audit, this report concludes that while the "Babylonian" AI stack is indeed environmentally destructive and culturally predatory, the strategy of abstinence represents a catastrophic Mauri Mate (-2) outcome.