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Kismet, an autonomous robot developed by Cynthia Breazeal at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Kismet is designed to have social exchanges with humans. A wide variety of facial expressions allow Kismet to mimic or display emotions.
Credit: Photo © Sam Ogden

CREATIVITY: THE MIND, MACHINES, AND MATHEMATICS
Another important symposium was “Creativity: The Mind, Machines, and Mathematics,” held at MIT from November 30 to December 2, 2006. It marked the 70th anniversary of Alan Turing’s groundbreaking paper “On Computable Numbers,” which is widely recognized as having laid a theoretical foundation for the computer revolution of the 20th century. Specifically, the symposium explored the current understanding of human creativity from scientific and philosophical perspectives.
slugThe symposium was co-chaired by Rodney A. Brooks, the Panasonic Professor of Robotics and director of the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, and by B. Jack Copeland, Professor of Philosophy and director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. It focused on creativity in the borderland between mathematics (computation), artificial intelligence, and neuroscience.
In particular, the participants debated whether there are any intrinsic differences between creativity of the mind and “creativity” of artificial intelligence, as well as whether or not the former can be captured or modeled fully by mathematical and/or mechanical processes. Among the big questions it addressed were: Is the logic of a Turing machine (or its extensions and generalizations) sufficient to capture the creative workings of a human brain? and Can there be a grand background theory that would encompass all systems that “exhibit” creativity?
“Creativity: The Mind, Machines, and Mathematics” Symposium Participants

Rodney A. Brooks
Panasonic Professor of Robotics and director of the Computer Science
and Artificial Intelligence
Laboratory, MIT


B. Jack Copeland
Professor of Philosophy and director
of the Turing Archive for the History
of Computing, University of Canterbury, New Zealand


Manuel Blum

Bruce Nelson Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

Margaret Boden
Research Professor of Cognitive
Science, University of Sussex
Peter A. Cariani
Faculty, Institute for Music and
Brain Science, Boston

Peter A. Cariani
Faculty, Institute for Music and Brain Science, Boston

David Gelernter

Professor of Computer Science, Yale University

David E. Goldberg
Jerry S. Dobrovolny
Distinguished Professor in Entrepreneurial Engineering,
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champagne


Silvio Micali
Professor of Computer Science, MIT

Ronitt Rubinfeld
Professor of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science, MIT




Madhu Sudan
Fujitsu Professor of Computer
Science, MIT


Leslie G. Valiant

T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Harvard University

Avi Wigderson
Herbert Maass Professor in the School of Mathematics, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton