Computers and the Future of Human Creativity

摘要

The effects of computer science on human society can be usefully viewed in the framework of scale change. A number of examples of scale change are considered, in design, mathematics, social organization, medicine and, most especially, in the modeling and perception of the complex biological and social world in which we live. The common feature in these examples is the computer's ability to allow humans to return to modes of thought which are crucial for both the psychological and historical origins of scientific and engineering activities, but which were deemphasized in the classical scientific paradigm due to limitations on information processing. The explicit appreciation of the scale changing power of the computer has important implications for computer science education and for its role in fully releasing the creative possibilities in the human-computer relationship. (Author)