Kolja Sahm
My work sits at the intersection of systems engineering, decentralized governance, and the philosophy of artificial intelligence. I am primarily concerned with one central question: what does it actually mean for a system to be autonomous?
In contemporary discourse, autonomy is often used as a loosely defined label – applied to technologies ranging from AI systems to decentralized organizations. My research takes a more rigorous approach. I define autonomy as a system’s capacity to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty without external intervention, and I investigate how this capacity can be systematically described, operationalized, and ultimately measured.
To ground this inquiry empirically, I use Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) as a research environment. These systems provide a unique setting in which governance, coordination, and decision-making are encoded into technical and institutional structures. Building on this, I have developed a formal framework that translates the abstract notion of autonomy into a set of observable structural properties, enabling comparative analysis across different systems.
Beyond DAOs, my research extends to intelligent agents and multi-agent systems. Here, questions of autonomy quickly intersect with issues of responsibility, control, and system-level behaviour. As systems become more adaptive and distributed, traditional notions of accountability begin to break down, requiring new conceptual and technical approaches.
At the same time, my work deliberately engages with philosophical perspectives that challenge the foundations of these concepts. In particular, I draw on Buddhist philosophy, which questions the existence of a stable, independent self. From this perspective, autonomy is not a given property but may instead be understood as an emergent phenomenon arising from interdependent processes. This raises a fundamental question: are we identifying autonomy in systems, or are we projecting it?
Rather than treating these perspectives as contradictory, my research integrates them. On one level, I develop formal models that make autonomy measurable and comparable. On another level, I examine the conceptual assumptions underlying these models. This dual approach is essential when dealing with increasingly complex and adaptive systems, where technical capability and philosophical interpretation are deeply intertwined.
Methodologically, my work combines formal modeling, empirical analysis, and interdisciplinary theory. I place strong emphasis on transparent evaluation criteria, reproducibility, and evidence-based assessment, particularly in the study of decentralized systems.
Alongside my academic work, I have spent many years in senior leadership roles within international business environments. This practical experience informs my research perspective, particularly in understanding how complex systems behave when formal models meet organizational reality.
A central implication of my current work concerns the role of intention. If autonomy is not anchored in a stable “self” but emerges from dynamic processes, then intention becomes a critical lens for evaluating system behaviour. This has direct consequences for governance: ethical, moral, and potentially legal accountability may need to shift from static notions of control toward dynamic, system-level assessments of intention, action, and outcome.
In this sense, the study of autonomous systems is not only a technical challenge but a governance problem. As organizations increasingly deploy adaptive and semi-autonomous systems, they will need new frameworks that go beyond rule-based control – frameworks capable of integrating evaluation, feedback, and responsibility in environments where no single actor can be said to be fully “in control.”
Ultimately, my goal is to contribute to a more precise understanding of autonomy – both as an engineering concept and as a philosophical construct – and to inform how such systems can be responsibly designed and governed in real-world organizational contexts.
For a detailed professional background, please refer to my LinkedIn profile.