{"schema_version":"1.0","id":"path-expansion-v0.1","title":"Path Expansion","subtitle":"Evaluating Actions by the Futures They Open","author":"John Brajer","framework":"Choseverse","publication_surface":"MyMindMine","established_source_window":"2026-08","publication_date":"2026-09-12","version":"0.1","document_type":"decision_principle","canonical_url":"https://www.mymindmine.com/frameworks/path-expansion","source_record":"research/path-expansion-v0.1.md","core_question":"Which action most improves the future possibility distribution?","definition":"Path Expansion evaluates an action partly by how it changes the number, diversity, and quality of desirable future actions and states that become reachable from the resulting state.","state_chain":"Current State -> Action -> Weight Shift -> New State -> New Possibilities","evaluation_dimensions":["quantity of relevant reachable futures","quality of reachable futures","diversity of future routes","preservation of valuable options","closure of valuable paths","reversibility","information gain","capability gain","confidence"],"relationships":{"perspective_expansion":"Perspective Expansion improves the candidate action set before selection; Path Expansion evaluates how candidate actions change access to desirable future states.","trajectory_engine":"Path Expansion is one decision term inside trajectory analysis alongside direct outcome, risk, confidence, reversibility, information gain, alignment, and current-state constraints.","possibility_reserve":"Path-Expansion Search extends the orientation into resource allocation over branches whose value can include the possibility-space they open.","brmfa":"BRMFA can model actions as interventions on mechanisms and make predicted state transitions more causally interpretable."},"claim_boundary":["No universal numeric Path Expansion formula is asserted in v0.1.","Predicted future paths are not guaranteed outcomes.","No claim of scientific novelty, mathematical optimality, or empirically superior decision performance is made without comparison and testing.","The v0.1 evaluation checklist is a publication formalization of the established principle, not a claim that every dimension appeared verbatim in the originating record."],"provenance":{"status":"creator-established principle","originator":"John Brajer","source_window":"August 2026","established_core":"An action can be valuable beyond immediate reward because it changes access to desirable future actions and states; the relevant future-facing dimensions include the number, diversity, and quality of those possibilities.","later_integrations":["Perspective Expansion","Trajectory Engine","Possibility Reserve / Path-Expansion Search","BRMFA","opportunity and authority scoring"]}}