B.5:4.4 - Settle the question or change the next inquiry

Return the result at its supported scope. Stop when it answers the current use. Continue only for a remaining question whose possible answers could change understanding or action and whose investigation is worthwhile under the available conditions. Account for the effort of learning, obtaining, explaining, checking and maintaining the result as well as calculation cost.

When the result exposes a limitation, identify what must change:

• The answer or construction for the same question: repair it or investigate a serious alternative.
• The formulation: revise the target, assumptions or boundary and state which earlier results still apply.
• The available Methods or ways of constructing candidates: compare retaining, modifying or extending that repertoire. E.23 supplies improvement under an appropriate evaluation; C.18 applies when generation rules, retained alternatives or the effective space of possibilities are the question.
• A participant’s ability to contribute: distinguish the capability question from missing access or support; use E.23.CAE and E.23.CDI where their conditions hold.

Use B.5.QD when the next question is still unclear. Recover a failed dependency or a newly available construction, specify the answer it makes worth seeking, and work a revealing case. This can develop the inquiry after a success as well as a counterexample.

Use E.10.DEV if “development” hides the intended subject and C.36 for an actual cultural-generation, transmission or selection question.

Retain a construction or unresolved alternative when a named future inquiry makes keeping it worthwhile. C.17 can characterize novelty, value and diversity on a declared basis; C.18 distinguishes the archive from a comparison front and a new point from a change in admissible possibilities.