The coalescent architecture of agency : normative directionality as the key to human–AI integration
This paper advances the notion of coalescent agency as a framework for understanding human–AI integration, thereby entering ongoing debates about machine agency, extended cognition, and AI governance. I argue that the persistence or erosion of human agency in human–AI systems can be predicted through four operational criteria constituting normative directionality : domain understanding, critical evaluation capacity, override authority, and responsibility attribution. Drawing on segmented ontology and predictive processing theory, I distinguish material-segment mechanisms (AI computational processing) from social-segment mechanisms (human normative practices) while showing how these heterogeneous structures can coordinate productively. The framework’s central prediction—that automation bias
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