Co-Cognition: Definition and Concept Paper

This paper defines Co-Cognition as a structural process in which human cognition and external systems, particularly AI systems, operate in a shared feedback loop, jointly generating, refining, and applying representations. Unlike ordinary tool use or information retrieval, Co-Cognition describes a deeper integration in which external systems begin shaping the structure and direction of thought itself. Human intent, judgment, grounding, and stop conditions interact recursively with system-generated structure, pattern recognition, recombination, and compression. When the loop remains bounded by external testing and human direction, it can stabilize and extend thought. When those constraints weaken, the same process can amplify Cognitive Drift by making representations increasingly coherent without making them more grounded. As a canonical concept within the Reality Drift framework, Co-Cognition provides the primary definition for understanding cognition that becomes distributed across human and artificial systems, including the conditions under which these loops produce insight, dependency, or drift.