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- Hacker News
- > Destruction does not require consciousness. It requires only power and the ability to act.by dvh
- Wow so much [attacking the messenger] in this thread, without addressing the points it makes.
Humanity is destroying this planet's biosphere in the pursuit of greed. And it might well cause our demise (not just us, btw) if we don't change our ways.
Imho it's hard to find flaws in the logic laid out in the essay. If you can: bring it on!
by RetroTechie - So it helps to look up this tribe in Wikipedia. It turns out that they have been the stars of documentary film going back to a 1990 BBC feature. Their sequel, Aluna, was released in 2012.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluna
The film appears to center around their quest to obtain gold thread in London. It says the tribe has learned the art of filmmaking, in order to embed the documentarians among their own people. They also have participated in U.N. events.
The drama is framed as "Older Brother warns Younger Brother" about the dangers of modern technology and progress.
It seems safe to say that the tribe is speaking with one voice here, or at least authorized their leadership to proceed with this path, and release of the manifesto is a related activity that also emanates from authentic sentiments and teachings among the members.
So here is the 2012 film, Aluna: https://youtu.be/ftFbCwJfs1I?si=BzaFqTOLCpjE_EBh
The original 1990 documentary: https://youtu.be/9_7aZGShHbQ?si=9BdgVH38jzGoJEV1
- If this is authentic, I am a duck.
You'd have to be exceedingly open-minded to imagine a very remote, isolated peoples speaking in a semiotic flavor indistinguishable from your own Bay Area tech geek. Using metaphors like "quantum vacuum" and "mathematically incompatible theories of reality".
The source (a commercial website for a resort hotel, if you click around) doesn't pass the minimal trustworthiness bar, in this era of ubiquitous fake AI writing.
by peri-cl - It can help in getting a perspective on this message to investigate the Kogui tribe, its philosophies, and its structure, including how they raise their future leaders. There's a strong similarity, with important differences, between Plato's Allegory of the Cave (from the Republic) and how some children are brought up. These children later become important figures in the community.
Edit: an early BBC documentary on the Kogui https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJNpMxhO4Ic
by nstents - A lot to think about here, quite poignant. Strange combination of insights, but still (mostly) strikingly coherent, as long-winded as it is. I found myself agreeing with the majority of it.
Funny how this will now be part of the material future models are trained on and/or fetching. Perhaps that's a good thing.
by slfnflctd - A statement from the Kogui (Kággaba) people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, assembled from the words of Mamo Vangelio Moscote Alberto and Saka Rosa Mamatacán Sauna. José Manuel Mamatacán translated it into Spanish and Christian Horstmann into English.
Edit: an earlier source for the same text is this PDF hosted on Movilizatorio's site (a Colombian non-profit), dated September: https://movilizatorio.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Gonawin....
I'm not affiliated with sonidoselva.
by andreisag - "Danger is a people without conscience with great power in the hands."
Sandwiched between their description of the cosmos, how AI is like any other life form and needs to be trained with wisdom, criticism of unbridled greed, and the warning that the modern world may destroy itself, (and BTW the Kogui are resilient and will be fine, and offer their help), there is a more practical concern: These machines are going to need critical minerals and rare earths, and the US and Colombia just signed an agreement about these. The Colombian government promised to protect the Kogui territory; their perspective on this protection is bitterly thus:
"That it was granted is one thing.
That it be, respected we imagine, might be removed another."
So no doubt they rightly feel (and are) threatened by the all-consuming corporations making this thing.