---
title: "Humanity-of-the-Gaps"
description: "By analogy with \"god of the gaps\": defining the uniquely human as whatever AI cannot yet be or do, so that the self-assigned human domain becomes \"a shrinking corner of the world.\" The brief treats…"
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/humanity-of-the-gaps"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/humanity-of-the-gaps"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Humanity-of-the-Gaps

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/humanity-of-the-gaps), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

By analogy with "god of the gaps": defining the uniquely human as whatever AI cannot yet be or do, so that the self-assigned human domain becomes "a shrinking corner of the world." The brief treats it as the psychological engine of "Team Human" nativism and artificial xenophobia (agents as invasive species competing for work, authority and emotional attention), which can invert into an imagined existential threat from AI. §10.3 adds that the move has been losing ground for as long as humans have had externalization infrastructure — "which is to say always" — since cognition has been extended across artifacts since the Oldowan. The alternative offered is *productive alienation*: the non-human interlocutor as a mirror that forces self-seeing "at an angle it could not otherwise occupy."

## Appears in

- [Agentworld (Research Brief)](https://antikythera.wiki/work/book/agentworld-brief) (2026-06-25)
- [Antikythera](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/research) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._