Try This Process

You don't have to actually try this out. You can just read along.

I made a game for kids called "Mad Scientist."

You have two decks of cards: a deck containing common objects (hammer, shoe, basketball, etc.) and a deck of uses (transporting water, slicing bread, fastening paper together, painting, jacking up a car, etc.).

Shuffle each deck separately and draw the top card from each deck. Suppose you get "basketball" and "transporting water." How can you use a basketball to transport water? Everyone, except the judge for this round, creates a solution. If the judge picks your solution as the best, you win a point for that round. Switch judges and draw two more cards to start a new round.


Well, you could cut open the basketball and carry water inside. Did you have "transport water" on your list of uses for a basketball? A basketball can carry water because it is hollow inside. Did you have "hollow" as a feature of a basketball?

You could also deflate the basketball into a bowl-shape and then carry water. Did you have "can become bowl-shaped" and "can be deflated" as features?

The point is that a random process like shuffling a deck of uses can help you create new uses and features that you would not normally notice.

Why might this random process help find uses? Without it, you are stuck following your own association patterns which will tend to stay close to those things closely associated with basketball. A random process can help you get out of the neighborhood close to a basketball to other more distant neighborhoods.

Why might this random process help find features? The short answer is: Because a feature is the result of an interaction with something else. Interact the basketball with something it has never interacted with before and most likely you will notice a new feature. For a longer answer, go to the next post "Where Do Features Come From?"