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134 Creativity

Complexity: Analytical Problem Solving

The two central concepts in the theory of analytical problem solving are heu-
ristic search and subgoaling (see Chapter 4). Historical case studies leave little
doubt that both concepts apply to creative projects. Although most of the
cases cited in this chapter are taken from the history of technological inven-
tion, analogous cases could be cited from the history of art or science.

Search
The initial concept of a desired device is sometimes functional, as in a machine
for flying, sometimes a mix of material and functional ideas, as in use radio
waves to detect enemy airplanes at a distance and sometimes a special case of
an existing device, as in a clock that is accurate enough under sea conditions to
enable the determination of longitude. The initial concept is not a blueprint and
even less a prototype, or else invention would be easy and anyone could invent
a time travel machine. Between the concept and the working prototype is the
space of possible designs.
Engineers can sometimes calculate in advance what will and will not work,
but at the cutting edge of technology such predictive knowledge might not be
available and possibilities have to be evaluated by material tests. Three classical
instances are Thomas Alva Edison’s work on the telephone, the lightbulb and
the electrical battery. In Edison: Inventing the Century, Neil Baldwin writes,
“… Edison, with [his assistant] Batchelor at his side, pressed on intermittently
with the ‘speaking telegraph’ throughout the next two years … testing the
electronic resistance properties of more than two thousand different chem-
ical compounds… .” In the case of the lightbulb, there was an issue of which
substance to use for the filament. For over a year, the Edison team explored
filaments made out of platinum. They proceeded by trying one type of plat-
inum filament after the other. This search took place after the concept of the
lightbulb was already well articulated: a glass-enclosure with electricity being
led through a glowing filament. What was varied in this search was the exact
composition, thickness and so on of the filament. After a year with only par-
tial progress Edison changed the direction of the search to focus on carbon
compounds instead of platinum ones, a space in which success came rapidly.
Finally, Edison’s research team spent three years working through possible
designs of the first working battery. Baldwin writes, “For three years, Edison
set his chemical research team at West Orange to work testing thousands of
different permutations for the variety of elements within the structure of the
battery, to find the right interaction of an alkaline (i.e., nonacidic) solution