This essay discusses Samuel R. Delany`s 1966 novel Babel-17, with focus on the novel`s representation of the power of human language. Adopting the conventions of science fiction, Delany emphasizes the language`s power to dictate our perception of external realities, following the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. The novel juxtaposes the human languages and the computer languages developed in the mid-twentieth century. Babel-17 resembles the computer languages, and having no word for "I," it turns its speaker into an automaton. While this juxtaposition shows irony, paradox, and ambiguity as the strengths of human language to articulate our complex realities from multiple perspectives, Delany expresses his anxiety about the binary mode of thinking demonstrated by computers and automata. Silvan Tomkins, an American psychologist, also produced his affect theory in the period when Babel-17 was written. Like Delany, Tomkins defines complexity and diversity as the exceptional human characteristics, as opposed to machines.`` Reflecting the poststructuralist view of a human being as a complex system influenced by a social structure and external environment, their definition of humanity allows great openness and further possibilities for finding the uniqueness of an individual. Thus, Babel-17 can be read as a critique of the digital age, demonstrating the damaging impact of dichotomous logic on the human mind. In so doing, Delany warns us of our blind faith in efficiency and our obsession with analytic information.