Operationalizing Creative Theories

Hypothetical reasoning is one of the best interdisciplinary tools we have for growing human knowledge, as it exercises imagination and empathy while yielding powerful abstractions. Operationalizing hypothetical reasoning (via programming languages) can therefore be used fruitfully in creative, imaginative activities. Conversely, pre-digital techniques for adding spontaneity and serendipity into creative work, based on collaborative play, have inspired digital interfaces and might be fruitfully extended to programming languages. I will illustrate how hypothetical reasoning and collaborative play pair well together as guiding principles, and using them, I will describe a unified design space of computational artifacts for programming, proving, storytelling, playing, and generating computational artifacts.

Transcript

1. Operationalizing
   Creative Theories
   Chris Martens
   UC Santa Cruz
   Expressive Intelligence Studio
   OBT 2016
   1
   

   View Slide

2. View Slide

3. View Slide

4. View Slide

5. 5
   Confluence
   

   View Slide

6. confluence of
   programming abstractions
   and
   interactive expression
   6
   

   View Slide

7. Roadmap
   !
   Imaginative Play
   Collaborative Play
   Generative Methods
   Tool Design
   7
   

   View Slide

8. Roadmap
   !
   Imaginative Play
   Collaborative Play
   Generative Methods
   Tool Design
   8
   

   View Slide

9. “Imaginative play: [children] must practice pretending
   to be someone else, in another place. Making up
   character, plot, and dialogue, for the stories they
   invent. They are, in truth, inventing abstract thinking.”
   Vivian Gussin Paley, early education
   researcher:
   9
   

   View Slide

10. View Slide

11. Hypothetical Reasoning
    11
    

    View Slide

12. Hypothetical Reasoning
    wizards are real,
    wizards can cast spells,
    “accio” is a spell that summons an object,
    …
    !
    12
    

    View Slide

13. magic circles
    Adams & Rollings 2009
    13
    

    View Slide

14. other “magic circles:”
    !
    metacircular interpreters
    self-similarity & fractals
    recursion in general
    14
    

    View Slide

15. “magic” in digital games
    15
    

    View Slide

16. 16
    inventory systems
    

    View Slide

17. 17
    verb/noun systems
    

    View Slide

18. emergent behavior and surprise
    !
    a response for every conjuring of the
    imagination
    !
    game worlds in conversation with their
    players
    18
    

    View Slide

19. View Slide

20. 20
    Emergent Behavior
    

    View Slide

21. 21
    Simulationist Worlds
    e.g.:
    glass can break into shards
    rope is cuttable
    shards are sharp
    =>
    glass can be broken to cut the rope
    

    View Slide

22. 22
    Simulationist Worlds
    

    View Slide

23. 23
    Inform 7
    

    View Slide

24. Roadmap
    !
    Imaginative Play
    Collaborative Play
    Generative Methods
    Tool Design
    24
    

    View Slide

25. 25
    Tabletop RPGs
    

    View Slide

26. Surrealist games
    26
    

    View Slide

27. 27
    Like programming languages, collaborative
    games are constrained affordances whose
    use results in a designed artifact.
    

    View Slide

28. Chooser: decide among available rules
    Interpreter: what does the output mean?
    Interpreter: what do the rules mean?
    Co-creator: contribute rules
    28
    The Role of the Human
    

    View Slide

29. Nomic
    [Peter Suber, 1982]
    29
    Game with self-modifying rules
    

    View Slide

30. 30
    Blurring the lines between
    design tool and designed artifact
    

    View Slide

31. Roadmap
    !
    Imaginative Play
    Collaborative Play
    Generative Methods
    Tool Design
    31
    

    View Slide

32. 32
    AKA Procedural Content
    Generation (PCG)
    

    View Slide

33. Spatial level structure
    Character attributes
    NPC Dialogue
    Items
    Aesthetic components (visuals, music)
    Narrative*
    Game Rules*
    33
    What kinds of things can we generate?
    

    View Slide

34. Level Structure: Spelunky
    34
    

    View Slide

35. Aesthetics: Secret Habitat
    35
    

    View Slide

36. Dialogue: Prom Week
    36
    

    View Slide

37. DESIGN FOR RECOMBINATION
    !
    [Gillian Smith, “An Analogue History of PCG”]
    37
    

    View Slide

38. Oulipo
    38
    

    View Slide

39. View Slide

40. View Slide

41. Lego
    41
    

    View Slide

42. Compositionality
    42
    

    View Slide

43. Combining Hypotheticals
    43
    

    View Slide

44. Compositionality
    44
    Meaning Combination function
    

    View Slide

45. Compositionality
    45
    With [[-]] typing, value, etc.
    

    View Slide

46. production grammars
    & rewrite systems
    46
    

    View Slide

47. production grammars
    & rewrite systems
    47
    

    View Slide

48. Context Freeness
    is a form of compositionality
    48
    

    View Slide

49. 49
    - Given a combined thing, its meaning can be
    determined by its parts
    !
    - Given an atomic thing, its meaning can be
    understood independently of what it can be
    combined with
    Two Views of Compositionality
    

    View Slide

50. for any new domain we want to generate, the question
    becomes:
    !
    what are the Lego pieces?
    how do they compose?
    50
    

    View Slide

51. Narrative
    51
    

    View Slide

52. Vladimir Propp: Morhpology of the Folktale
    52
    

    View Slide

53. 53
    Are stories compositional?
    + = ?
    

    View Slide

54. View Slide

55. 55
    “18 Cadence” by Aaron Reed
    

    View Slide

56. 56
    A refinement of compositionality
    If A’s interface I(A) matches I(B), then
    I(A * B) is defined.
    e.g.: function composition
    

    View Slide

57. 57
    E.g.
    A hates B
    A has
    weapon
    A murders B
    B dead
    B hates A
    A insults B
    B hates A A hates B
    

    View Slide

58. 58
    E.g.
    A hates B
    A has
    weapon
    A murders B
    B dead
    B hates A
    A insults B
    B hates A A hates B
    

    View Slide

59. B hates A
    59
    A hates B
    A has
    weapon
    B dead
    B hates A A hates B
    A murders B
    A insults B
    

    View Slide

60. 60
    symmetric monoidal categories
    

    View Slide

61. View Slide

62. 62
    analogies for PCG
    

    View Slide

63. 63
    Can an automated system come up with coherent recipes?
    Or coherent programs in a given PL?
    (program synthesis)
    

    View Slide

64. Mixed-initiative design: Sentient Sketchbook
    64
    

    View Slide

65. Roadmap
    !
    Imaginative Play
    Collaborative Play
    Generative Methods
    Tool Design
    65
    

    View Slide

66. Tools that lots of people
    use are more fun when
    they’re compositional
    66
    

    View Slide

67. Twine
    67
    

    View Slide

68. Tools that exist: Tracery
    68
    http://www.crystalcodepalace.com/traceryTut.html
    

    View Slide

69. Tools that exist: Tracery
    69
    

    View Slide

70. 70
    6 6¶
    6R6¶
    
    U6R6¶
    
    
    Q
    
    /RJLF3URJUDP
    LQLWLDOVWDWH
    Ceptre
    

    View Slide

71. …and compositional tools
    are more fun when other
    people can use them
    71
    

    View Slide

72. programming a blank canvas
    72
    

    View Slide

73. compiler
    73
    structure Foo =
    struct
    !
    fun fact 0 = 1
    | fact n =
    n * fact (n-1)
    !
    end
    REPL
    

    View Slide

74. compiler
    74
    REPL
    fun fact 0 = 1
    | fact n =
    n * fact (n-1)
    fact : nat -> nat
    fun mapfact l =
    map fact l
    

    View Slide

75. Agda emacs mode;
    interactive theorem provers
    75
    mixed-initiative compositional
    programming?
    

    View Slide

76. 76
    programming in conversation
    with a system
    

    View Slide

77. CODA
    77
    

    View Slide

78. <3 OBT <3
    78
    

    View Slide

79. <3 OBT <3
    2012
    79
    

    View Slide

80. <3 OBT <3
    2012
    2014
    80
    

    View Slide

81. Different Games : GDC
    ::
    OBT : POPL
    81
    

    View Slide

82. DIFFERENT GAMES are the
    FUTURE OF GAMES
    - Clara Fernandez-Vara,

    Different Games 2013
    82
    

    View Slide

83. OBT PL RESEARCH is the
    FUTURE OF PL RESEARCH
    83
    

    View Slide

84. Chris Martens
    context.adventure@gmail.com
    @chrisamaphone
    http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~cmartens
    84
    THANKS!
    

    View Slide

85. Extra Slides
    85
    

    View Slide

86. 86
    top-down approaches:
    evolutionary, constraint, planning
    (methods of search)
    

    View Slide

87. 87
    PCG with ASP
    

    View Slide

88. Simulationist story generation:
    88
    Describe what characters are in the world & their
    relationships to one another
    !
    Describe what story events can do to change those
    relationships
    !
    Describe a termination condition
    !
    Press play
    

    View Slide

89. storyteller
    89
    

    View Slide

90. vi hart on structure:
    !
    "we understand the world and each other through the
    patterns we know, but it's also important to realize
    the structure is there, realize how invented it all is.
    !
    “that frees you to build new, more beautiful structures
    that communicate things there were no words for
    before, even if that new word might not be
    understood."
    90
    

    View Slide

91. magic circles?
    Pfenning & Davies 2000
    91
    

    View Slide