Emergent Cognitive Circulation in Open-Ended Project Structures

What appeared initially as an attempt at civilizational reform gradually revealed itself as a process of internal recovery. The structural design did not aim to correct society, but to restore continuity within cognition. Title Emergent Cognitive Circulation in Open-Ended Project Structures 1. Introduction 自律エージェント研究の現状 「主体」「目標」「完結」を前提とする設計の限界 本研究の問い:Can sustained cognitive activity emerge without autonomy, fixed goals, or completion criteria? 2. Related Work Persistent agents / System 3(Sophia系) Dual-process theories(System 1 / 2) Collaborative knowledge systems ※ここは軽めでOK(主役じゃない) 3. Observation (ここがあなたの体験だが、完全に翻訳する) Open-ended project environment No explicit completion statement No fixed reviewer / controller References allowed to cross project boundaries Observed phenomenon: Recurrent attention shifts Cross-topic reactivation Non-linear revisit patterns Sustained engagement without task assignment 4. Structural Conditions for Cognitive Circulation (この論文の核) Absence of completion criteria Non-centralized validation Boundary permeability Role fluidity - Designed non-control, not automation 5. Discussion Circulation vs autonomy Flow vs agency Why “collaboration” emerged without being declared Comparison with agent-based models 6. Implications AI system design Research workflow design Knowledge management Collective intelligence environments 7. Conclusion Cognitive circulation as a design primitive Open-endedness as an enabling condition Abstract Recent research in artificial intelligence and collaborative systems has focused heavily on autonomous agents, goal persistence, and task completion. However, such approaches often assume the existence of a centralized subject, predefined objectives, and explicit termination conditions. This paper reports an observational study of an open-ended project structure in which no completion criteria, fixed supervisory roles, or explicit collaboration declarations were introduced. Despite the absence of autonomy or task assignment, sustained cognitive activity was observed, characterized by recurrent attention shifts, cross-topic reactivation, and continuous reinterpretation across project boundaries. We propose the concept of cognitive circulation to describe this phenomenon: a fluid, non-hierarchical flow of attention and meaning that persists without centralized control or agent identity. Rather than acting as discrete layers, structural components functioned as permeable pathways, enabling continuous re-entry and transformation of information. This observation suggests that long-term cognitive engagement can emerge as a structural property of an environment, rather than as a feature of autonomous agents. The findings offer implications for the design of AI systems, collaborative research environments, and knowledge infrastructures that prioritize circulation over completion.