Informatics creativity: a role for abductive reasoning?

• Authors: John Minor Ross
• Venue: Communications of the ACM
• Year: 2010

Introduction Despite the fact that creative problem solving is desirable at all levels, it is constantly in short supply. Technology developers always wish they, and their peers, could devise novel solutions to the problems at hand. Yet too often, common brainstorming efforts generate only fog or drizzle. Part of the problem may be that while some technology trainers advocate the search for creative solutions, the learning side of the equation is little changed by a "be creative" lecture component. This inquiry attempts to equip computer educators, and practitioners, with a broadened approach to fostering creativity, targeted at expanding discovery within Informatics areas. Particularly, it is suggested that promoting abductive reasoning might help computer professionals understand the benefits of wider investigations within an expanded range of topics. Although discussed additionally later, a short overview of the abductive reasoning approach is that "abduction, or inference to the best explanation, is a form of inference that goes from data describing something to a hypothesis that best explains or accounts for the data." Few professionals would suggest there is no need for new, creative solutions to the problems they encounter. An example of the recognition of such needs is highlighted in industry. Consider that each year Procter and Gamble spends nearly $2 billion looking for innovative ideas. This R&D budget spans 150 science areas including biotechnology, imaging, and robotics. Aside from pure research, P&G pursues "aggressive mining of the scientific literature," as well as employs upwards of 70 "technology entrepreneurs" around the world who analyze local markets to see what has been created elsewhere that might be acquired, modified, or simply spark new ideas internally. Sparking new computing ideas is the intent of this discourse. Various overlapping and synergistic issues come to mind when considering what has been called "discovery informatics." Concepts suggested therein are extended here to consider the possible value of abductive reasoning in Informatics. Specifically, how might abduction help generate creative approaches to problems as Informatics reaches into the fabric of so many disciplines. Understanding this technique might assist Informatics workers to progress from being data rich and discovery poor, to a state of information wealth, as professionals benefit from applying new ideas. In 1990, abductive-related efforts in computing had already been occurring for nearly 20 years. And yet, after another 15 years has passed, the awareness of the potential of abductive reasoning in computing fields remains relatively spotty. The current growth of Informatics programs may offer a chance to change that profile. Since Informatics programs tend to be more cross-disciplinary, it might achieve the goal of that 1990 Automated Abduction symposium---to help a wider range of researchers to recognize that "they might benefit from work on abduction by people in other areas." Overall, it may turn out that this diffusion cycle will be reminiscent of how slowly object-oriented programming came to be understood, let alone embraced. We set out to consider the potential of abductive reasoning to promote creativity within the interdisciplinary field of Informatics. As will be presented in the following sections, we believe in the applicability of this reasoning style as a tool for expanding the power of Informatics as it seeks to solve complex problems in a wide range of disciplines. Abductive reasoning is well suited for facing problems that are vague, or even unrecognized. The goal? Turning massive amounts of data lead into tiny, although much more valuable, quantities of information gold.