The Co-Evolving Workspace: Toward a Field-Based Theory of Governed Human–Machine Cooperation

Human–machine collaboration is frequently described as a problem of shared physical space, accurate localization, safe motion, and efficient task allocation. Those capabilities are essential but do not, by themselves, explain whether an interaction remains authorized, interpretable, revisable, and collectively coherent while humans, machines, tasks, and rules change. This conceptual and methodological paper proposes the Co-Evolving Workspace Hypothesis: in sufficiently dynamic cooperative environments, the relevant object of analysis is not only a spatial configuration or a sequence of individual decisions, but a time-indexed relational constitution linking physical state, evidence, task commitments, human agency, authority, and verified consequences. A candidate Field-based representation is constructed as an optional, mission-relative abstraction for this constitution, not as a new physical field or a demonstrated scientific ontology. The proposed model distinguishes observation from warranted belief, action from effect, coordination from legitimate cooperation, and behavioral adaptation from authorized constitutional change. It specifies bounded propositions, operational invariants, defeaters, candidate measurements, independently labeled case families, and a prospective comparison against information-matched digital twins, partially observable decision models, formal safety monitors, policy engines, and conventional distributed-system architectures. The strongest outcome permitted by the research design is not presumed superiority of Field terminology: observational equivalence, explanatory redundancy, and a conclusion that no additional Field abstraction is needed are explicit possibilities. No robot trials, human-subject experiments, causal estimates, safety certification, or empirical improvement are reported. The contribution is a falsifiable framework for studying the conditions under which a shared workspace can change without losing accountability to the humans who inhabit it.