Incentivized Symbiosis: A Paradigm for Human-Agent Coevolution

Cooperation is vital to our survival and progress. Evolutionary game theory offers a lens to understand the structures and incentives that enable cooperation to be a successful strategy. As artificial intelligence agents become integral to human systems, the dynamics of cooperation take on unprecedented significance. The convergence of human-agent teaming, contract theory, and Web3 offers a philosophical foundation for thinking about cooperation in the agentic era. We conceptualize Incentivized Symbiosis as a social contract between humans and AI, inspired by Web3 principles and encoded in blockchain technology, to define rules and incentives. By exploring this paradigm, we aim to catalyze new research at the intersection of systems thinking in AI, Web3, and society, fostering innovative pathways for human-AI coevolution.