A Computational Framework for Conceptual Blending - with Applications in Mathematics and Music

Manfred Eppe

ICSI

Tuesday, July 7, 2015
12:30 p.m., Conference Room 5A

Conceptual blending is a concept invention method that is advocated in cognitive science as a fundamental, and uniquely human, engine for creative thinking. This talk presents a computational framework, based on Goguen's category-theoretical formalization of blending, which treats the blending process as an interleaved search and evaluation problem. The system is demonstrated with examples from different domains where creativity is important. In particular, we show how the blending framework is capable of inventing `Eureka'-lemmas to facilitate mathematical proofs, and we show how the framework can harmonize chord progressions for automated music generation.

Bio:

Manfred Eppe received his PhD from the University of Bremen, Germany, in 2014, where he was working in the field of epistemic action theory. After his PhD, he moved to the Artificial Intelligence Institute in Barcelona, Spain, where he worked on formal models for computational creativity, within the European COINVENT project on concept invention. He moved to the ICSI in April 2014, where he is now working in the intersection of AI and Natural Language Processing.