Review of "Creativity in Invention and Design: Computational and Cognitive Explorations of Technological Originality by Subrata Dasgupta", Cambridge University Press, 1994.

Abstract

This brief book will not be much help to the day-to-day AI practitioner but could be used as a point of departure. The author is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at the Center for Advanced Computer Studies of the University of Southwestern Louisiana. He has written four previous books about computer science. I am in sympathy with the author's intent, but I found that he cracked the concrete of his conceptual support and then left a flabby interior of amorphous specifics to be gutted by rather too sharp conclusions. The author states that creativity, especially in technology, can be discussed within a computational framework. Specifically, he concerns himself with a plausible explanation of Wilkes' invention of microprogramming in 1951. In general, the author puts forth hypotheses related to the specific which corroborate findings by others that creativity is not significantly differing from other everyday mental processes.