AI and ML powered design services and products relies on what Alan Cooper
points as "working forwards"; making design decisions based on confirmation
of preset data in opposition of "working backwards"; questioning everything
that has been accepted.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=f8I7LPb0m64
How might we escape from "perpetuating everything that is wrong with
current reality, ensuring that all possible futures are merely
extrapolations of a dysfunctional present?"
https://www.readingdesign.org/a-larger-reality
On Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 14:14 Krippendorff, Klaus <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Terry,
>
> First of all an epistemological fine point: I didn't suggest that
> designers "identify unimaginable possibilities." If they are unimaginable
> they cannot be acted upon. I said "previously unimaginable possibilities."
> Designers need to go beyond both what is commonly understood and hence
> imaginable and expand their own space of possibilities.
>
> I grant you that computes can search among an amazing number of data
> points to find what someone is looking for, hence imagines, but what is
> found must have been there to begin with.
>
> Computers can also explore an amazing number of combinatorial
> possibilities, more that humans can combine and examine in their life time.
> But the elements they combine must be finite and known in advance by the
> programmers of algorithms. Going through a space of say a billion binary
> variable requires 2 to the power of 1,000,000,000 steps, which is
> transcomputational. Even with something that is computable, a computer may
> come up with unanticipated combinations but not transcend them.
>
> I have a lot of respect for human creativity. Contrary to what you are
> claiming, I am suggesting that creative designers are extremely good are
> thinking out of the box of deterministic processes.
> I am not referring to designers who merely use a more attractive shape or
> color of something already known, but designers that propose something
> previously unimaginable, develop something not predictable by extrapolating
> past trends, not finding something rarely noticed and increasing its
> probability by offering it to a large population.
>
> Klaus
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Terence Love
> Sent: Saturday, April 13, 2019 6:27 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Automated design generation and optimisation research
> breakthrough
>
> Dear Klaus,
>
> Thank you for your message.
>
> In it you suggest that one characteristic of design activity is that, '
> Design operates in a space of previously unimaginable possibilities.
>
> A problem with human designers is that they are not good at identifying
> 'unimaginable possibilities'
> In contrast, from my experience over the last 45 years, computers can be
> much better and more thorough than human designers at finding 'unimaginable
> possibilities'. There are many many computer-based approaches. Currently,
> in the product design world, generative design methods have since the 80s
> been creating optimised designs that human designers have found difficult
> or impossible to imagine.
>
> Another example of such generative approaches that go beyond what human
> designers can creatively think is the computerised approach that Phillipe
> Stark is now using to extend his creativity - see for example,
> https://www.autodesk.com/redshift/philippe-starck-designs/?utm_source=Marketo&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Redshift%20newsletter%20Weekly-2018-10-25T11:00:00.000-07:00%20&mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTnpGaVpqRTNOamRsWWpneSIsInQiOiJcL3FRd24zOEVtMVwvY0JSTTROdGpBUWc3MW1vYzhHUWMxVmhzYlptSkRsM1ZiR3ZuTzVWSHorWjJiaFQrZkJHK0tad0hCdDBUOVRSRWdOelczRmVjMVwvaThmNmxTNFF5NGUxYnpHVWlWMnJyekZLbjRvNXNSbUhqVnlJV05sQzJnMzQ5RXZnbmVFU0hEUm13c1ZhankxaWc9PSJ9
>
> And... the first full length book machine-written book was published this
> week by Springer Nature (
> https://aktuelles.uni-frankfurt.de/englisch/first-machine-generated-book-published/
> )
>
> Best wishes,
> Terry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Krippendorff, Klaus
> Sent: Saturday, 13 April 2019 1:32 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Automated design generation and optimisation research
> breakthrough
>
> Hi Terry and Dave,
>
> Yes, computers are faster and can search for optimum solutions provided
> the number of alternatives are well-defined and within computational limits.
>
> Regarding computational limits, design decisions often exceed them which
> is why Herbert Simon suggested to replace optimizing by satisficing --
> keeping the criteria within computational limits.
>
> Regarding the well-defined mature of computational algorithms, most design
> problems aren't of this kind. We have plenty of theories, especially
> including mathematical ones, that extract determinisms from the reality of
> human interfaces with technology, which may hold for a moment, may be
> enforced by authorities but soon become outdated.
>
> Semiotics is a good example. Morris, Pierce, Russell and many other
> semioticians abstract meanings from human interactions into triadic
> conceptions. Their theories has given rise to algorithms that include
> dictionary definitions of meanings -- the General Inquirer, LIWC, CATPAC,
> Webcrawlers, Google translator, for example. Such software can mine large
> data bases, identify, analyze, evaluate, even vary a lot of phenomena. They
> may create novel texts that may not be obviously distinguishable from what
> humans might say -- provided such texts are short and of the most basic
> kinds, like Alexis.
>
> Don't forget, by (my) definition:
> Design operates in a space of previously unimaginable possibilities.
> Good design is inherently opposed to the kind of determinisms that
> computers are programmed to follow. Algorithms are routines that when
> adopted by human beings keep them entrapped in reproducible habits,
> burdened by dreadful conditions, wasteful of their creativity, or oppressed
> by conditions that seem hopeless. On a macro level design is what keeps
> culture viable and unpredictable, on an individual level it has to be
> revolutionary.
>
> We may not be able to compete with computers quantitatively, but even
> everyday design takes place in a space that computers cannot create on
> their own.
>
> Klaus
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, April 12, 2019 11:40 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Automated design generation and optimisation research
> breakthrough
>
> Hi Terry,
>
> I have been down this route both practically and intellectually in a
> number of projects, not with the power of contemporary AI, let alone
> quantum computing, but the problems of limits in the nature of computers,
> in contrast to people remain. There are various ways of describing the
> problem.
>
> My best simple ways of describing it involves a knowledge of basic
> concepts in semiotics and linguistics. Charles Morris’s account of
> Semantics, Syntactics, and Pragmatics helps. Putting the matter VERY
> simply: Computers of any kind, including quantum computers, are extremely
> good at precise and fast construction and application of semantic and
> syntactic rules. They have NO pragmatics engine. Indeed, as far as I know,
> no-one has yet conceptualised, let alone implemented such a system.
>
> Within their limited domain computers can do great things. They can also
> make bigger mistakes faster than any person could possibly even conceive
> of. Our ultimate defence, at least for the moment, is to know where the
> plug is so that we can pull it out.
>
> David
>
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