Shared Environments

Definition

Shared Environments examines shared environments within the broader domain of norms, roles, rights, control and long-term coevolution between humans and artificial agents.

Why this matters

Shared Environments can materially affect human agency, capability, belonging, livelihoods, culture, trust, resilience and long-term societal outcomes.

Research questions

Under which conditions does shared environments improve human and system outcomes, how do effects vary across populations and contexts, and what safeguards prevent dependency, exclusion, distortion or loss of agency?

Hypotheses

A transparent, participatory and human-directed approach to shared environments, with explicit safeguards and longitudinal evaluation, will improve human control; trust calibration; dependency; cooperation; conflict; role clarity; safety; wellbeing compared with opaque, automation-first or short-term approaches.

Proposed methods

controlled human-agent studies; governance simulations; ethnography; dependency analysis; conflict games; longitudinal ecosystem observation; literature and policy review; expert and affected-user interviews; reproducibility testing; methods adapted specifically to Shared Environments

Stakeholders and beneficiaries

governments; communities; employers; workers; unions; educators; infrastructure operators; emergency services; civil society; researchers; investors; technology providers