Pat Flynn explored that critical question with Dr. Eric Holloway and Professor Robert J. Marks in a recent episode of the Mind Matters podcast. Delving into a chapter from their book Minding the Brain, they focused on the “information cost” of creativity. They argue that the complexity involved in generating meaningful phrases surpasses the computational resources of the universe. That is a challenge to naturalistic explanations and suggests a need for an external source of creativity.

Defining Creativity

Creativity is defined through the lens of the Lovelace test, proposed by Selmer Bringsjord, which posits that a creative act by a computer must exceed the intent or explanation of its programmer. Dr. Marks emphasizes that artificial intelligence, including large language models, operates within the bounds of programmed instructions, lacking true creativity.

Dr. Holloway distinguishes creativity from randomness. Creativity cannot be reduced to probabilistic distributions because random processes lack the intentionality required for meaningful output. This distinction sets the stage for questioning whether evolutionary processes, often equated with randomness, can account for human creativity.

The Information Cost of Meaning

Mountain climbing is a useful metaphor to illustrate the challenge of generating meaningful phrases. The “summit” represents a meaningful phrase, and the “climb” represents the process of reaching it through random selection of letters from a 27-character alphabet (including spaces). Meaning is broadly defined as any string of letters corresponding to words in a dictionary.

The authors argue that creating meaningful phrases requires an extraordinarily high amount of information. They calculate that even with the universe’s computational capacity— estimated at 10^244 bits based on Planck cubes and Planck time units— only a 268-character phrase could be generated randomly. Even hypothesizing parallel universes (up to 10^1000) would only marginally increase this number to 1,380 characters, underscoring the exponential difficulty of the task.

The Role of Active Information

Active information is introduced as the guidance needed to navigate the metaphorical mountain. Without it, random processes are as likely to succeed as any other path, per the No Free Lunch theorem.

Dr. Marks illustrates this with an analogy: finding an Easter egg in Wyoming. Without accurate guidance, the search is futile.  An active information source like “you are getting warmer” or “you are getting colder” is needed to find the egg.

If we use the mountain climbing metaphor instead, active information is like an escalator on the side of the mountain that lets you reach the summit more easily.

Metaphysical Considerations

The discussion also touches on a metaphysical argument by philosopher Richard Taylor (1919‒2003), who argued that meaning cannot arise from random processes. Using the example of rocks forming the phrase “Welcome to Wales” by chance, Taylor argues that such an arrangement, if truly random, lacks intentionality and thus cannot convey meaning. Even if random processes could produce such a meaningful arrangement, the absence of a mind behind it negates its semantic content. Creativity requires a non-random, intentional source.

Implications for Creativity’s Source

The findings challenge naturalistic accounts of creativity, suggesting that the ability to generate meaningful phrases exceeds the universe’s computational resources. The authors propose that human creativity, suffused with semantic and intentional content, points to a non-material or external source of active information.

The need for active information implies an intelligent design, potentially guiding evolutionary processes or directly enabling human creative capacities.

Take Away

The Mind Matters podcast discussion casts doubt on the ability of evolutionary processes to account for human creativity. By demonstrating the immense information cost of even simple meaningful phrases and the necessity of active information, Holloway and Marks demonstrate that naturalistic explanations fall short. Their work invites further exploration into the origins of creativity, noting that the genius of the human mind requires an external, intelligent source beyond the material world.