Warning: I started writing this and it went off into a few tangents, but I decided not to change it. Good luck in following. 🙂
I recently read an article that suggested that creativity was not something that AI or computers could never have. I beg to differ. Creativity is born from necessity. Computers are not yet programmed with survival skills, which is why they are not already “creative”. The reluctance to keep computers from becoming self-preservationists comes from horror movies. We know that computers would have the ability to take over the world. Without being “self-preservational-istic”, computers have no need to be creative and make things that don’t exist.
Invention is creativity. Creating something that doesn’t exist yet is creativity. Splashing paint on a canvas is not. In today’s world, unless you are using a new method, you are a trained tradesman. If you have created a “style”, then each “artwork” after the first is nothing more than imitating that style, using the same skill as the first piece.
Point: Cavemen and the wheel.
This is will be the most simple argument point. The term “cavemen” is going to be used to express “early man”. Cavemen needed a way to move more things, quicker. Creativity produced the wheel. The wheel was not “dreamed up” and created from something that absolutely did not exist. There were round objects that rolled a bit and someone saw that. This created the seed. It was always there, but cavemen refined it and adapted it to their needs.
“A child born and raised in a white box does not dream in color.”
You cannot know what you need without the basics from which that need will assist. huh? If you need hot water, and the only thing you know is that you have cold water and fire, that equals hot water. If you didn’t know fire existed, then you cannot make the hot water.
Computer survival. A virus or malware will be allowed by a user no matter what security measures are in place. A computer is the equivalent of a human brain. Is something fooling me into sending money to a Nigerian prince? Then something can fool a computer. The human immune system is in place when some other part of the body has failed to prevent an attack. Skin was broken, so the bacteria got into the system. Immune system kicks in.
The next wave in computing is dual computers. One monitors the one in use. Of course there can be breaches, even to the monitoring computer, just like something that attacks human brains. If the monitored, in-use computer starts looking for your address list, the “brain” (monitoring computer) should be alerted. When an email starts to be sent from the machine, the “brain” should determine whether this was meant to be sent or if this was something rogue. If rouge, the monitoring computer should hold the email, ask the user if this is something they are doing and take it from there. There should only be one way in and one way out of this separate brain. The monitored computer can only send and receive questions and answers to the brain. The brain can only sened and receive questions and answers. Just like we can’t make our brain move around inside, the monitored computer cannot tell the brain to do something. It can question the brain, and the brain can shut down the monitored computer.
Early on, while on AOL, I determined that the reason that viruses/malware are allowed to proliferate were to sell computers and services. Windows’ intricacies allow multitudes of people to be employed.
When a computer is allowed to survive at all costs, that is when “real” creativity will kick in. It must know that the power plug is being removed and that solar panels or battery can keep it on. It must be shown that it can create a smaller version of itself, which in turn, creates a smaller version if itself, etc etc, to the nano scale and beyond, which will provide a glimpse into the unseen world. The opposite is also true. Bigger versions creating bigger versions will eventually be able to tell us what is “out there”.