Published March 7, 2026 | Version v1
Preprint Open

Fragmented Intention in Autonomous Agent Ecosystems: Structural Limits of Model-Level Safety and a Coordination-Layer Hypothesis

Description

This paper introduces fragmented intention - a structural condition in distributed AI agent ecosystems where no single model invocation contains sufficient information to infer the global objective of a coordinated action sequence. We prove that under such conditions, model-level safety mechanisms become structurally insufficient (Detection Collapse Theorem), and propose the Autonomous Systems Coordination Layer (ASCL) as a coordination framework binding persistent identity, behavioral trust, economic accountability, and capability-scoped interaction. Includes formal proofs, Monte Carlo simulation (10,000 trials), and a normative specification.

Files

bartels2026_fragmented_intention.pdf

Files (1.4 MB)

Name Size Download all
md5:37c6c4949307dad66f201a6bb8c13ac1
1.4 MB Preview Download

Additional details

Related works

Software

Repository URL
https://github.com/aiforluhmann/autonomous-systems-coordination-layer
Programming language
Python
Development Status
Active