When we can't solve aproblem, we try to find a new way to look at it. "Reformulation is the most powerful way to attempt to escape from what seems to be a hopeless situation." Minsky suggests that while an inventor might appear to be full of a vast array of novel ideas, in reality the inventor might simply be using variations of far fewer themes -- reformulation as the mother of invention! "In the long run, the most productive kinds of thought are not the methods with which we solve particular problems, but those that lead us to formulating useful new kinds of descriptions." New ideas often have roots in old ones.
(NB: The inventor example makes me think of creativity in rule-governed systems -- infinite variety coming from finite (but compositional and systematic) resources).
Pearl Street | Society Of Mind Home Page | Dawson Home Page |