corewhether

Corewhether is a theoretical construct in decision theory and computer science that describes a class of problems whose outcome is determined primarily by a small, essential set of binary questions. The term combines core, indicating central importance, with whether, a placeholder for a boolean decision. It is used in speculative discussions about modelling and simplifying complex decision problems.

In corewhether modeling, the problem is represented as a Boolean decision network. A distinguished subset of nodes, called the core set, comprises the binary questions that determine the final outcome; non-core questions are considered satisfiable or inferred from the core results. The aim is to identify a minimal core that preserves the outcome, a notion sometimes referred to as the corewidth.

Researchers discuss potential uses in AI planning, systems verification, and risk assessment, where focusing on few decisive yes/no questions can reduce analysis effort. It is also proposed as a heuristic for feature selection in binary classification tasks.

An illustrative scenario is a policy approval process in which a decision reduces to a handful of core yes/no criteria, such as risk, compliance, and feasibility; once these are resolved, additional checks are inferred.

Because the core set is not uniquely defined and may change with context, corewhether has been criticized for ambiguity and potential oversimplification. Practical methods for identifying core sets remain an open area of study.

Corewhether remains a niche concept with no formal standard definition in established literature. See also Boolean logic, decision theory, and feature selection.