Kenneth O. Stanley (2018)
Art in the Sciences of the Artificial.
In: Leonardo, vol. 51, issue 2, April 2018, MIT Press (Manuscript 16 pages; 28 with Appendix)
(c) ISAST
Abstract
This position paper argues that the sciences of the artificial (artificial intelligence and artificial life) have a special relationship to art that is absent from much of science. Just as art is often a depiction or interpretation of nature, so are the algorithms in the sciences of the artificial. This observation is important because the discourse in these fields largely ignores the relevance of subjective resonance with nature to their own scientific progress. Yet progress is potentially stifled if we cannot discuss such resonance openly. To support this view, examples in this paper illustrate how the subjective impression of such resonance led to novel encodings and algorithms in the author’s own career. An important conclusion is that there may be more to gain than to lose by allowing some level of subjectivity to enter the discourse in the sciences of the artificial.