The Irreducibility Test

The Irreducibility Test classifies a Work Center. It asks one question of each side of the work separately: is the human contribution on this side structurally required, or is it there only because the work has always been organized around people?

You need the hire_coworkers or admin ability to record a result.

Start the test#

On the Intelligence Map, select Run Irreducibility Test on a Work Center's card. If it already has a classification the link reads Re-run Irreducibility Test. You can also reach it with Run Irreducibility Test → while editing the Work Center, or from the guided session. The page is headed Test followed by the Work Center's name.

The test starts from the Work Center's current answers, and from its earlier rationale if it has one, so you confirm or change them rather than re-enter them.

Side 1: Intelligence#

Choose Reducible or Irreducible for the interpretation, judgment, insight and recommendation the work takes.

• Irreducible means the task requires human judgment or accountability.
• Reducible means the judgment could be reduced to a set of rules.

Two lists help you decide. Signs the judgment is irreducible:

• Legal accountability an AI system can't carry
• Trust relationships that depend on a human's presence
• Synthesis across fields no single AI configuration spans
• Genuinely novel situations
• Stakes that need accountability a system can't bear

Signs it is reducible:

• Data-driven pattern-matching where the answer is implicit in the data
• Lookup where the answer is in public sources
• Comparison or benchmarking that repeats across cases
• Research synthesis where inputs are widely available and the synthesis is structured, not novel

Side 2: Capability#

Ask the same question about the execution work (drafting, formatting, calculation and producing the result), separately from the judgment. Choose Reducible (AI can perform it today) or Irreducible (AI cannot).

The result#

The Result panel shows all four classifications and marks the one your two answers produce with a check and Result. It updates as you change your answers.

Intelligence	Capability	Result
Irreducible	Irreducible	Retain
Irreducible	Reducible	Redesign
Reducible	Reducible	Eliminate
Reducible	Irreducible	Recheck

If the result is Recheck, a notice reads "Look again — this combination almost never occurs. One of your two answers may be off."

Record it#

Enter a Rationale explaining why you answered as you did. It is required: Record result stays unavailable until you have written one. If the Work Center is already classified, the page shows "Currently classified:" with the current label and notes that recording again replaces it.

Select Record result to save and return to the map. Cancel leaves without saving. Recording the test sets the Work Center's two axes to your answers and its classification to the matching result. Only the most recent result is kept.