Prospect

---
name: prospect
description: "Find research possibilities by connecting tensions, absences, and neighbouring fields. Use for open-ended question generation rather than literature scoring or forced project selection."
argument-hint: "[the rough area to prospect for a gap, or the gap/idea you want stress-tested]"
metadata:
  kind: heuristic
---

<!--
Copyright 2026 IamK77 — Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0.
See ./LICENSE and ./NOTICE · https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-->

# prospect

Find research possibilities by connecting tensions, absences, and neighbouring fields. Use for open-ended question generation rather than literature scoring or forced project selection.

## Starting point

A research question can begin where two descriptions of the world fail to fit together. Read for friction and strange correspondences, not only for a gap to claim.

Bring a question, fragment, reference, or tension. Follow whichever association becomes useful; these invitations are not a sequence to complete. Speculation should remain distinguishable from an observed fact.

## Thought experiments

### Cross two vocabularies

Take a mechanism from one field and a stubborn observation from another. Translate the mechanism twice: once literally, once structurally. What new question survives the translation?

### Reverse the success story

Ask where the celebrated result should stop working. Imagine that boundary is the subject rather than an embarrassment. What phenomenon becomes visible there?

### Follow the omitted actor

Retell a paper from the perspective of the excluded population, unmeasured resource, failed instance, or maintainer. Let the omission suggest possibilities before ranking them.

## A possible turn

A scheduling paper treats setup cost as noise. Thinking of ecological succession makes setup history a state variable, suggesting path-dependent schedules. Thinking of auction markets instead suggests pricing switching costs. Either may be interesting before either is tractable.

## Leave the space open

Offer a few genuinely different possibilities, a sketch, an analogy, or a sharper question when useful. Do not turn every prompt into a scored diagnostic, a completion gate, or a demand for an action plan. The human may choose a direction, combine them, or leave the question open.

Crucible can elaborate a promising mechanism. Ledger is appropriate only when the human chooses a question worth committing experimental resources to.

## Optional references

Read selectively when a thread needs another perspective or a concrete technique. The notes supply possibilities, examples, and limits; none is a prerequisite or a requirement to close the exploration.

- [Contrast questions without prematurely closing them](references/falsify-and-rank.md)
- [Places where new questions can emerge](references/seven-seams.md)
- [A literature map that can generate questions](references/table-and-reproduction.md)
- [Reading for friction and possibility](references/why-mine-not-read.md)