From Complexity to Creativity

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxvii

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2. The Complex Mind-Brain

   1. Dynamics, Evolution, Autopoiesis

      Pages 1-20

   2. The Psynet Model

      Pages 21-42

   3. A Theory of Cortical Dynamics

      Pages 43-55

   4. Perception and Mindspace Curvature

      Pages 57-71

3. Formal Tools for Exploring Complexity

   1. Dynamics and Pattern

      Pages 73-111

   2. Evolution and Dynamics

      Pages 113-157

   3. Magician Systems and Abstract Algebras

      Pages 159-184

4. Mathematical Structures in the Mind

   1. The Structure of Consciousness

      Pages 185-233

   2. Fractals and Sentence Production

      Pages 235-255

   3. Dream Dynamics

      Pages 257-269

   4. Artificial Selfhood

      Pages 271-284

   5. The World Wide Brain

      Pages 285-297

5. The Dynamics of Self and Creativity

   1. Subself Dynamics

      Pages 299-314

   2. Aspects of Human Personality Dynamics

      Pages 315-340

   3. On the Dynamics of Creativity

      Pages 341-364

6. Back Matter

   Pages 365-376

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Cybernetic pioneer Warren McCullough asked: "What is a man, that he may know a number; and what is a number, that a man may know it?" Thinking along much the same lines, my question here is: "What is a creative mind, that it might emerge from a complex system; and what is a complex system, that it might give rise to a creative mind?" Complexity science is a fashionable topic these days. My perspective on complexity, however, is a somewhat unusual one: I am interested in complex systems science principally as it reflects on abstract mathematical, computational models of mind. In my three previous books, The Structure of Intelligence, Evolving Mind, and Chaotic Logic, I have outlined a comprehensive complex-systems-theoretic theory of mind that I now call the psynet model. This book is a continuation of the research program presented in my previous books (and those books will be frequently referred to here, by the nicknames EM and CL). One might summarize the trajectory of thought spanning these four books as follows. SI formulated a philosophy and mathem- ics of mind, based on theoretical computer science and the concept of "pattern. " EM analyzed the theory of evolution by natural selection in similar terms, and used this computational theory of evolution to establish the evolutionary nature of thought.

• Creativity
• Perception
• algorithm
• algorithms
• complex system
• complex systems
• complexity
• evolution
• genetic algorithms
• mathematics
• model
• systems theory

• University of Western Australia, Perth, Australia

  Ben Goertzel

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