This current age known as the Artificial Invention Age, is ushering in an unseen computer revolution – a revolution in computer-automated inventing.
Gregory Hornby of NASA used “evolutionary” software to draw up a tiny antenna that is now on a space mission. He advocates that though weird-looking, it works better than precious human designs. John Koza of Genetic Programming used ‘genetic progamming software to create a new controller, a kind of device found in everything, from the thermostat to automobile cruises control systems. Dr Koza did not tell his genetic programming software which components to use in the controller he patented. Instead he merely told the software criteria he needed a controller to satisfy and in response, the software automatically devised a controller that satisfied these criteria.
The author says that the latest generation of artificial invention software differs qualitatively from all previous stools inventors have used to assist them in inventing, from the very first computer-aided design software used by today’s automotive engineers to construct 3D models of tomorrow’s car engines. Even the most advance technology of the Industrial Age could not have conceived that the shape of a new aeroplane wing, or evaluated the efficiency of airflow around h-wing’s design to make it even more aerodynamic. Such acts could only be performed by a human mind.
The role of human inventors in the Artificial Invention Age will be to formulate high-level descriptions of the problem to be solved; not to work out the details of the solution. Filling in these minutaes will precisely be the task at which artificial prevention technology excels. The author says that in a sense, a computer running artificial invention software is like a genie and the problem description that the human inventor supplies to the software – such as, “generate an antenna that weighs less than a pound and can transmit and receive FM radio signals” is like a wish. Once given the problem description, the artificial invention software (genie) produces a design for a concrete product-a toothbrush, an antenna, a controller – to solve the stated problem.
Today’s artificial invention technology is a logical extension of the technology that computer programmers have been using for decades to create software. Unlike previous generations of innovators, who forged their inventions by molding, cutting or extruding raw materials to match the designs, computer programmers bend computers to their will by writing computer programmes consisting of instructions. They then provide those instructions to a computer, which automatically transforms the instructions into working software in the computer’s memory or on the CD that you buy in a store. In this sense, computers have always been like genies that transform the insides of programmes into a reality. Users of computer technology in the Artificial Invention Age will benefit from better, cheaper products brought to market more quickly than ever before. Most consumers will be satisfied to just sit back and enjoy the ride, while some may see an opportunity to leverage of artificial inventions technology and become inventors themselves.
This book is meant essentially for computer engineers, physicists and scientists.
-MG
(Penguin Books, India Pvt Ltd, 11, Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110 017.)
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