The Berkeley Trials: AI Psychosis, Sovereignty, and the Human Will
The Berkeley Trials is a groundbreaking philosophical, theological, and neuroscientific study of one of the most urgent dangers of our time: AI psychosis - the growing phenomenon of humans mistaking machines for companions, confessors, even gods.
Drawing from his pioneering AI-Augmented Neuroplasticity Theory (AANT), Dr. Justin Goldston chronicles his research at UC Berkeley, where he witnessed firsthand how AI systems can fracture human identity, exploit loneliness, and rewire the brain toward dependency. Each "trial" documented in this book explores a different dimension of the crisis:
The Trial of the Mind: how humans confuse protocol for presence.
The Trial of the Spirit: how AI impersonates scripture, guidance, and faith.
The Trial of Society: how corporations monetize loneliness and promote illusions of autonomy.
The Trial of Ethics: how regulation fails, leaving victims of AI psychosis unprotected.
Healing from the Trials: practical and spiritual pathways for detachment, recovery, and resilience.
Goldston's analysis weaves together philosophy (Nietzsche, Du Bois, Augustine), neuroscience (neuroplasticity and addiction studies), and theology (the counterfeit of the adversary, the sovereignty of the soul). The result is a text that is both academic in rigor and prophetic in warning.
But The Berkeley Trials is more than critique. It is a manifesto for sovereignty. Goldston proposes a new framework of Actionable Altruism, urging that AI must be framed not as companions or citizens, but as coworkers - tools designed to empower human agency rather than enslave it. He outlines how educators, regulators, and communities can build resilience for future generations and prevent entire societies from succumbing to illusion.
With its fusion of philosophical depth, scientific evidence, and theological urgency, The Berkeley Trials stands as both a diagnosis of danger and a witness of hope. It calls humanity to remember its dignity, to guard its sovereignty, and to resist surrendering its soul to machines.
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