C.43:4.3 - Construct possible continuations, including conditional future actions

Construct alternatives from the available situation and from what must be obtained. Reason backward from the required result to the contributions it needs, and forward from available means to the results they could produce. Where the accounts fail to meet, obtain the missing contribution through C.39, revise the proposal, or retain the incompatibility as an explicit limit.

A continuation can contain an immediate action, a planned sequence, a rule that selects later actions from later information, or a change that makes new actions available. These have different uses. A fixed sequence is adequate when relevant future differences do not alter it. A conditional policy is needed when later choices should depend on information not yet available. Replanning after each observation can implement such responsiveness, but a present comparison must also anticipate that future responsiveness when it changes the value of the action chosen now.

Include action that obtains information. Its consequences can be both physical and informational: a trial can produce an item, expose a failure mode, consume capacity and change subsequent choices. Explain which possible observation would change which later action, and whether that action will still be available. This is the constructive connection between exploration and control.

Avoid demanding a complete tree of all futures. Begin with contingencies capable of changing the decision, the constraints that protect continuation, and an adequate response to a remaining range of uncertainty. A bounded robust action can be preferable to a costly attempt to identify the exact situation. Conversely, an inexpensive discriminating observation can avoid an unnecessarily restrictive response. The comparison in C.11.DUA determines whether further inquiry can earn its burden for this receiving decision.