From Nexus to the Tower of Babel: On Truly Human Psychology in the Dawn of AI
TL;DR
It is argued that a state I call Babel, the opposite of Nexus and characterized by fragmentation, disunity, plurality of perspectives, and diverse forms of knowledge, can function as a safeguard against AI by preserving the subjectivity and richness that machines cannot easily replicate.
Abstract
Psychology has long aspired to Nexus, a coherent body of knowledge that would integrate its many subfields into a cumulative science of the human mind and behavior. However, in the age of Artificial Intelligence (AI), moving closer to Nexus may paradoxically become the field’s greatest vulnerability. It could make psychological knowledge more susceptible to exploitation by AI systems, enabling them to surpass human researchers and gain extraordinary power to manipulate individuals. In this article, I argue that a state I call Babel, the opposite of Nexus and characterized by fragmentation, disunity, plurality of perspectives, and diverse forms of knowledge, can function as a safeguard against AI by preserving the subjectivity and richness that machines cannot easily replicate. Building on this foundation, I develop the idea of a “truly human psychology” that emphasizes unique personal experience, introspection, and creative expression. I propose both a radical version of this psychology, which resists universal frameworks entirely, and a pluralistic version that integrates uniquely human ways of knowing alongside psychology’s dominant natural science traditions. I conclude that embracing Babel need not mean abandoning the question of universality; paradoxically, it may provide a more fruitful path for exploring that possibility.