The Last Frontier

“See that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than
the imagination of man.”
                                                            -Richard P. Feynman

Creativity is often seen as the last frontier for artificial intelligence and computing. It is one of the few things in an ever shrinking list of things man can do better than machine. However, can we really say that we are responsible for the most creative designs in the universe? Everywhere we look, we see solutions that astound us, from planetary environments to ant nests to the human brain. These were not created by a singular cognitive being exerting his/her creativity; they were refined through processes such as natural selection, self-learning networks and general principles of emergence. Previously these methods were a mystery to us, but with the advent of computing, we now have access to nature’s toolkit for creation.

Inevitably, people are scared these automated processes will make humans obsolete. However, rather than replacing designers, I see an opportunity to enhance our creativity by using these tools. We can use emergent processes to think laterally and come up with unique ideas while using our intuition and judgement to make creative leaps and select ideas with the most potential. And unlike nature, which develops ideas over millions, if not billions of years, our contextual knowledge and understanding of problems should allow us to use emergent processes to design significantly faster. By stealing nature’s tools we can augment our creative abilities and use them to solve problems in any environment, whether its ‘virtual’ or ‘real’.

I don’t know what the consequences of using emergent processes while designing will be, but I am excited to find out. Designing Emergence is my playground, my lab, my study, my classroom. This is where I explore how we can create processes that help us design, and I invite you to explore with me. Lets begin.

If you think I’m crazy, please feel free to let me know in the comments below.