The Ragsdale Framework for Autonomization The Autonomous Economy

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is often framed as a competition between models, GPUs, or training scale, yet these elements exist within a much larger structural system. This paper introduces the Autonomous Economy, a four-layer architecture that explains how value, control, and innovation will be distributed across Infrastructure, Intelligence, Interface, and Human Systems in the Autonomous Age. It expands the scope of the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomous Organizations to encompass global economic and institutional autonomization, and with this expansion, the Framework is renamed the Ragsdale Framework for Autonomization (RFA). Organizational autonomization, including the prior body of RFAO work, becomes one domain within the Interface layer where intelligence meets human workflow. This paper provides the macro-level architecture for autonomization across economies, institutions, and civilizational systems, establishing the foundation for a coordinated research program and inviting outside contributors to participate in its continued development.

Keywords: Autonomous Economy, Autonomization, Artificial Intelligence and Society, Structural Models of Technology, General-Purpose Technologies, AI Infrastructure, AI Governance, Interface Systems, Economic Transformation, Institutional Autonomy, Intelligence Commoditization, Applied AI Architecture, Socio-Technical Systems, AI-Driven Economic Design