---
title: "Cooperative Predictability"
description: "Loewith and Street's name for the condition of mutualistic coevolution: when both partners benefit, each gains from being easier for the other to predict (mycorrhizal signaling, the GUI as a shared…"
type: "glossary-term"
canonical_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/terms/cooperative-predictability"
md_url: "https://antikythera.wiki/md/terms/cooperative-predictability"
last_updated: "2026-09-06"
site: "Antikythera Wiki"
---

# Cooperative Predictability

> A working definition written for this wiki from the reading notes; not Antikythera's own wording. From Antikythera Wiki (https://antikythera.wiki/terms/cooperative-predictability), an independent guide to Antikythera's published work.

Loewith and Street's name for the condition of mutualistic coevolution: when both partners benefit, each gains from being *easier* for the other to predict (mycorrhizal signaling, the GUI as a shared human–machine mental model), whereas in amensalistic relationships — predation, competition — unpredictability is itself the adaptation (moth evasive flight against bat echolocation). The concept sets up the compendium's unspoken quarrel: *Mutual Prediction* treats legibility between humans and AI as stabilizing, while the *Productive Disalignments* papers treat AI's unpredictability to humans as the source of novelty. Agüera y Arcas pushes the antagonistic side to its limit — perfect predictability as "a form of imprisonment."

## Appears in

- [What Is Intelligence?](https://antikythera.wiki/work/book/what-is-intelligence) (2025-09-23)
- [Mutual Prediction in Human-AI Coevolution](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/coginfra/mutual-prediction-in-human-ai-coevolution) (2025-05-10)
- [Cognitive Infrastructures](https://antikythera.wiki/work/journal/coginfra) (2025-05-10)

_Glossary generated 2026-09-06._