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SUMMARY:Creativity for the information age: making up minds and machines i
 n the United States and the Soviet Union - Ekaterina Babintseva (Purdue Un
 iversity)
DTSTART:20250313T153000Z
DTEND:20250313T170000Z
UID:TALK227074@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr. Rosanna Dent
DESCRIPTION:In the mid-20th century\, the United States and the Soviet Uni
 on came to believe that the future of each country hinged on capable techn
 oscientific workforce. To cultivate such workforce\, researchers in both c
 ountries suggested using special pedagogical computers\, which were seen a
 s more effective instructors than human teachers. At the same time\, in th
 e 1960s and the 1970s\, both American and Soviet societies saw the rising 
 urgency of the concept of creativity\, defined as the capacity for technos
 cientific ingenuity. This talk begins by examining how researchers in the 
 US and the Soviet Union approached the task of turning the computer\, a ru
 le-bound machine\, into the instrument of cultivating creative thinking. I
 n doing so\, scholars employed formal approaches to modelling human reason
 ing developed by artificial intelligence (AI) practitioners and cognitive 
 scientists in the US and the USSR. Pedagogical computing\, therefore\, bec
 ame the site where many approaches to AI were tested and perfected. Eventu
 ally\, some researchers involved in pedagogical computing turned to artifi
 cial intelligence research\, where they sought to replicate computationall
 y what they had come to define as the core of human intelligence. This tal
 k treats US and Soviet pedagogical computing as converging efforts in opti
 mizing and managing human cognitive resources under late capitalism and la
 te socialism. Tracing the lineage between pedagogical computing and artifi
 cial intelligence in the US and the USSR\, I demonstrate how in both count
 ries\, artificial intelligence was a managerial science of cognitive resou
 rces predicated on state and industry efforts to mold societies with scien
 ce and technology.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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