Thinking beyond means–ends analysis: the role of impulse-driven human creativity in the design of artificially intelligent systems

Abstract

While goal-directed problem solving as advocated by Herbert Simon's means-ends analysis model has primarily shaped the course of design research on artificially intelligent systems, we contend that there is a definite disregard of a key phase within the overall design process that in fact logically precedes the problem-solving phase. While the systems designers have been obsessed with goal-directed problem solving, the basic determinants of the desired goal state remain to be fully understood or categorically defined. We propose an argumentative framework built on a set of logically interlinked conjectures that seeks to specifically highlight the importance of this hitherto neglected phase in the overall design process of intelligent systems.