The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms

359 Pages·2003·1.97 MB·English

by  Margaret A. Boden

THE CREATIVE MIND
How is it possible to think new thoughts? What is creativity and can
science explain it? And just how did Coleridge dream up the creatures of
The Ancient Mariner?
When The Creative Mind: myths and mechanisms was first published, Mar-
garet A. Boden’s bold and provocative exploration of creativity broke
new ground. Boden uses examples such as jazz improvisation, chess,
story writing, physics, and the music of Mozart, together with computing
models from the field of artificial intelligence to uncover the nature of
human creativity in the arts, science and everyday life.
The second edition of The Creative Mind has been updated to include
recent developments in artificial intelligence, with a new preface, intro-
duction and conclusion by the author. It is an essential work for anyone
interested in the creativity of the human mind.
Margaret A. Boden is Research Professor of Cognitive Science at
Sussex University, where she founded the School of Cognitive and
Computing Sciences in 1987 (now the Centre for Research in Cognitive
Science). Her previous publications include Artificial Intelligence and Natural
Man (1977/87), Dimensions of Creativity (1994) and The Philosophy of
Artificial Life (1996).

THE CREATIVE
MIND
Myths and mechanisms
Margaret A. Boden
Second edition
First edition published 1990
by George Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.
Second edition published 2004
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 1990, 2004 Margaret A. Boden
Margaret A. Boden asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of
this work
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Boden, Margaret A.
The creative mind: myths and mechanisms/Margaret A. Boden.—2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Creative ability. 2. Artificial intelligence. I. Title.
BF408.B55 2003
153.3′5—dc21 2003046533
ISBN 0-203-50852-1 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-34008-6 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0–415–31452–6 hbk
ISBN 0–415–31453–4 pbk
FOR JOHN TROUNCE
AND IN MEMORY OF TONY TRAFFORD
I am not forgetting beauty. It is because the
worth of beauty is transcendent that the subtle
ways of the power that achieves it are
transcendently worth searching out.
John Livingston Lowes
CONTENTS
Preface to the second edition ix
Preface to the first edition xi
Acknowledgments xii
In a Nutshell 1
1 The Mystery of Creativity 11
2 The Story so Far 25
3 Thinking the Impossible 40
4 Maps of the Mind 54
5 Concepts of Computation 88
6 Creative Connections 125
7 Unromantic Artists 147
8 Computer-scientists 199
9 Chance, Chaos, Randomness, Unpredictability 233
10 Elite or Everyman? 256
11 Of Humans and Hoverflies 277
vii
CONTENTS
12 Epilogue 305
Notes 323
Bibliography 331
Index 339
viii
PREFACE TO THE
SECOND EDITION
This book is about human creativity, and how computers (discussed in
Chapters 5–8) can help us to understand it. Since I first wrote it my views
on what creativity is have remained basically the same. So, apart from
minor clarificatory changes, I haven’t altered the main text of the book –
except to add one example-program: Douglas Hofstadter’s COPYCAT.
I had originally planned to highlight COPYCAT in my discussion of
analogy, but after much soul-searching decided not to include it at all. I
felt that the details of how COPYCAT works were too technical for a
general audience, but didn’t want to skate over them for fear of appear-
ing to recommend magic; moreover, they were not yet officially pub-
lished so would not have been easy for readers to find. I soon regretted
that decision, so I added a foreword to the 1991 paperback indicating
what is interesting about the program while ignoring the details. In this
second edition I have taken the opportunity to integrate that brief
account of COPYCAT within Chapter 7.
I have, however, added two new pieces: one best read before the main
text and one after it. The first gives an introductory overview of my
account of creativity. It distinguishes the three main types of creativity –
combinational, exploratory, and transformational – and outlines how far
we can expect computers to match them.
The second new piece, an ‘epilogue’ placed as Chapter 12, mentions
some computer models of creativity developed in recent years. In writing
that I have assumed that readers will already be familiar with the main
text. So, for example, I describe Harold Cohen’s recent painting-
program there without re-describing its predecessors (the AARON pro-
grams featured in Chapter 7).
Because The Creative Mind was written for a general audience, I haven’t
detailed the many comments I’ve received since it first appeared. Anyone
who is interested can find a wide range of commentary, and my own
replies, in two ‘multiple reviews’ in the professional literature. One is in
ix