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4.4.4 Evaluation
Evaluation is the application of the aesthetic measurement process to the product of
the generation process. Both of these processes may be learned during preparation or
they may be the product of a (meta)creative process themselves. This is an internal
evaluation, not to be confused with the external appraisal and feedback from the
environment to which all potentially creative acts must be subject.
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A result that
passes the aesthetic test will be elaborated and eventually presented to the environ-
ment for that external assessment.
Though the high-level process description is deceptively simple, the computa-
tional challenges posed at this step are non-trivial. Assume that evaluation is com-
putable in principle, so we have an algorithm
E
that computes it.
What we want is another algorithm
F
that can tell us whether an artifact
a
is
accepted by
E
; that is, we are interested in the language
L
.
Initially, let's optimistically assume that
E
is even computable in the strong Turing
sense, that is, it is
decidable
. Then, we have an easy algorithm for
F
(run
E
on
input
a
), and, thus the rudimentary makings of an algorithm
C
for using
F
to solve
whatever the problem is (that is, to be creative):
(
F
)
={
a
|
E
accepts
a
}
C()
do
choose
a
until
a
in L(
F
)
Of course, in any interesting case, the space to explore is infinite and
E
may be
very selective, so this algorithm may be worthless, but at least it is computable—it has
been reduced to a “simple” question of complexity. To make it useful, we need a good
exploration strategy. It is possible that this might be learned from the environment
during the preparation step, but if such a search strategy is already known, then the
problem to which the search strategy is to be applied is likely already (nearly) solved.
So, for non-trivial problems, it is likely that the agent must discover a search strategy.
This is yet again a meta-level problem, and one we'll examine in a bit more detail.
We now have a new (meta)space to explore (this one containing exploration strate-
gies for the original space containing the artifacts
a
) in which we are looking for
a new (meta)artifact (the exploration strategy), so we have to reconsider the five
steps in that context. Of course this meta-problem immediately suggests yet another
meta-meta-problem—how do we search the space of search strategies?
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In a very real sense, creativity is a social phenomenon. It is impossible to attribute creativity
in a vacuum—both a creator and one or more receivers are necessary for creative attribution. The
creator produces an artifact, or engages in a process, and the receiver(s) experience the result and
attribute creativity based upon their perception of the artifact's, the process' and/or the creator's
characteristics.
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It is possible that this third-level question is still related to the base domain in a non-trivial way,
so that perhaps we don't have a really complete abstraction.
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