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selecting those that fit the task at hand. He will probably reuse an existing design,
and he is almost sure to rely on existing robotic components. He is more likely
to concentrate on establishing the appropriate criteria (processes 3 and 4 of lower
and upper bound definition) to ensure that the resulting robot is fit for the task,
possibly reflecting (process 7 of reflection) on the results of tests (processes 5 and 6
of construction and selection) with a view to refine the overall process. The task that
the robot is to achieve comes very clearly specified with the commission, and the
engineer basically translates it into the selection criteria that will be applied to test
the robot, which becomes the specification of the robot. In contrast, the artist is likely
to explore much more widely in terms of constructive procedures and ingredients,
trying to innovate more radically. The task or goal that the artistic piece intends to
fulfill is very much open, and a very significant amount of reflection on the part of the
artist may go into establishing what it may be. The selection criteria developed as a
result of this reflection become not so much a specification but more of an aesthetic.
Second, there are also significant differences between the poetry generator and
the other three. Both the engineer and the artists can be considered to carry out all of
the processes. If they decide to delegate any, these are more likely to be construction
and selection of construction and selection, which involve systematic application of
the decisions arising from the others. This is also the simplest option open to the
programmer: carry out processes 1 to 4 to build a program, run the program to cover
processes 5 and 6, then iterate including a process 7 of reflection. But of all of those,
only processes 5 and 6 are actually carried out by the machine. The big question is:
how many of these processes is a poetry generator applying? Most existing systems
include computational procedures that could be considered equivalent to process 5
of construction. Since the concern about creative systems being able to evaluate their
own output became prevalent, some systems now include procedures akin to process
6 of selection. In recent developments, systems have started considering selection
among a set of possible constructive procedures, or even dynamic construction of
criteria for selecting among candidates. But even these improvements are still hard-
wired solutions thought up by the programmer, rather than the results of reflective
processes implemented in the system.
19.2.2 Novelty as a Virtue
The considerations above apply to artefact generation even if the said artefacts are
to be mass produced to a set standard. If they are, the process of creation would
take place as described, to be followed by repeated application of process 5 and 6 to
produce many copies of the desired artefacts. In such a setting, processes 5 and 6 of
construction and selection could be seen to correspond to manufacture and quality
control. Under these circumstances, the creation process is carried out to identify
the particular solution that meets the requirements, and once it has been found, the
remaining processes of manufacture and quality control proceed systematically. The
overall process described above for the engineer corresponds to this type of situation.
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