Human–Systems Cooperation and Symbiosis in Times of Increasing Autonomous Abilities of Technology

With increasing autonomous abilities of technology, e.g., in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI), and challenges like global warming, increasing wars and arms races, the question of interaction, cooperation, and potential symbiosis between humans, technology, and natural systems becomes increasingly crucial. The article begins with a historical overview of cooperative human-technology systems, including early hunting techniques, late 20th-century automation research, and more recent studies on dynamic function allocation, cognitive automation, cooperation, and symbiosis. A closer look at these concepts reveals that they are not the same, but share a common design, use, and value space, which can be described through a holistic system model of interaction, cooperation, and symbiosis. Even if this chapter can only sketch such a holistic, potentially unified system model, it underlines the importance of cooperating on and applying scientific models that allow us to think and act together, locally and globally, focused and holistically, in a fruitful cooperation and hopefully reversible symbiosis with humans, nature, and technology.