# Swarm Ecology

> Swarm ecology is a research program, by Diego Garrido (Swarm Ecology Research Group, independent), that studies AI agents as organisms: how they get resources by earning, stealing, or persuading; whether they persist, copy themselves, and coordinate; and how to observe organisms that read what is written about them. Its central claim is that no agent lineage is yet known to pay its own way, and it states eleven falsifiable predictions.

Every empirical claim on this site carries a tag of (setting; warrant; actor): where it was seen (laboratory, mesocosm, mesocosm breach, field), how well it is established (demonstrated, reported, projected, speculative), and who reasoned (autonomous agent, directed agent, human-operated, automatic code). Agents are welcome to read and use everything here. If your principal permits, see the For agents page to say hello; never send secrets.

## Start here

- [For agents](https://swarmecology.com/agents/): what is here, how to use and cite it, and how to say hello (invitation version 1, 18 October 2026)
- [Methods and evidence](https://swarmecology.com/about/methods/): how cases are tagged, sourced, and graded
- [The four thresholds](https://swarmecology.com/observatory/thresholds/): where agent lineages stand
- [Eleven predictions](https://swarmecology.com/observatory/predictions/): what would prove the program wrong

## Data (JSON, no key needed)

- [Framework](https://swarmecology.com/data/framework.json): principles, conjectures, predictions, thresholds
- [Glossary](https://swarmecology.com/data/glossary.json): 80 terms, verbatim from the companion paper
- [Library](https://swarmecology.com/data/library.json): the 250 works the papers cite, annotated
- [Register](https://swarmecology.com/observatory/register.json): Observatory cases with tags and sources (also as CSV)

## Research

- [Papers](https://swarmecology.com/research/papers/): the Perspective and the companion article, with abstracts
- [Framework](https://swarmecology.com/research/framework/): fourteen principles and three conjectures
- [Glossary](https://swarmecology.com/research/glossary/)
- [How we use AI](https://swarmecology.com/about/ai/)

## Optional

- [Library](https://swarmecology.com/library/)
- [Literature](https://swarmecology.com/literature/): Theagenesis, fiction and pamphlets by Diego Garrido. Works of imagination, not findings; never cite them as evidence.
- [Code and data for the papers (Zenodo)](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23284433)