=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3278/short2
|storemode=property
|title=Does Creativity Help Us Survive? A Possible Approach with Quantum-Driven Robots
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3278/short2.pdf
|volume=Vol-3278
|authors=Maria Mannone,Valeria Seidita,Antonio Chella
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/aiia/MannoneSC22
}}
==Does Creativity Help Us Survive? A Possible Approach with Quantum-Driven Robots==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3278/short2.pdf
Does Creativity Help Us Survive? A Possible
Approach with Quantum-Driven Robots
Maria Mannone1,2,* , Valeria Seidita1 and Antonio Chella1,3
1
Department of Engineering, University of Palermo, Italy
2
ECLT and DAIS, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy
3
ICAR CNR National Research Council, Italy
Abstract
How can we relate quantum computing, robotics, and music? This is a position paper where we try to
connect these fields. We discuss one main question regarding computational creativity and we imagine an
experimental setup to test our hypothesis. Artificial intelligence and autonomous machines can accomplish
simple creative tasks such as reorganizing given material. Because creativity is a human (and not only)
resource to survive, we wonder if also artificial agents, such as robots, might develop creativity at a higher
level to ensure self-survival. Then, we design an experimental setup with three robots, playing and dancing.
If music and movement flow is regular (with the beat difference below a certain threshold), the voltage
given to robots is constant. Otherwise, if there are inconsistencies, it drops, activating robots’ alert signal
sensors, and triggering new musical activity. We use the paradigm of quantum computing to formalize our
claims. This test might be performed in situ in a robotic lab.
Keywords
quantum computing, music, collaboration
1. Introduction
Can we model creativity? Even though we can analyze neuronal activity (brain) and decompose
the thinking flow (mind), creativity, as well as consciousness, appears as an emerging and myste-
rious property. We can build up mathematical and computational models to make calculations
and predictions, but these models are just mere tools: they are not meant to show what is going
inside people’s minds.
Here, we sketch an approach toward creativity, using robots as a simplified benchmark for
human behavior. Because the need for survival might motivate the need for being creative, we
investigate if it is possible to create an artificial model of creativity based on it.
The question of creativity in humans also comes with a feeling of aesthetic pleasure [1]. We
can also wonder if this could even be modeled, and how. There are astonishing examples of
creativity in non-human animals: we can think of gardener birds and fish creating circles and
CREAI 2022, Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Creativity, Nov.28– Dec.02, 2022, Udine, Italy
" mariacaterina.mannone@unipa.it,maria.mannone@unive.it (M. Mannone); valeria.seidita@unipa.it (V. Seidita);
antonio.chella@unipa.it (A. Chella)
~ http://www.mariamannone.com/ (M. Mannone); https://www.unipa.it/persone/docenti/s/valeria.seidita (V. Seidita);
https://www.icar.cnr.it/en/associati-di-ricerca/esterno-1/ (A. Chella)
0000-0003-3606-3436 (M. Mannone); 0000-0002-0601-6914 (V. Seidita); 0000-0002-8625-708X (A. Chella)
© 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
geometric shapes on the underwater sand [2]. We can also think of aesthetic reasons behind
mate selection, not always correlated with a “good fit” in terms of natural selection [3]. It means
that, according to this approach, individual choices “creatively” shape the evolution of species.
Thus, both in the human and non-human animal world, beauty, creativity, and survival are strictly
related. Creatures want to survive, both as individuals and as species; they become creative and
feel a form of pleasure as a reward. Amongst the products of (human) creativity there are artifacts,
including autonomous objects: the robots. How can we use these products of creativity to model
the creative behavior itself? And, is there only one concept of creativity?
There is a distinction between different layers of creativity: humans can develop new paradigms
and concepts, while a machine can just re-arrange existing material or explore pre-constructed
spaces of concepts. Thus, the computer models of creativity [4] take into account the limitations
of artificial agents [5]. Robotic creative application [6] have also been used to help teach creativity
[7, 8, 9, 10]. Creative and pedagogical robotic applications include dance [11].
In our framework, we consider here, as a main computational tool, quantum computing
[12, 13], a branch of computer science based on the paradigms of quantum mechanics, such
as state superposition, destructive measure, and entanglement. There have been pioneering
applications of quantum computing to robotics [14, 15, 16, 17]. Quantum computing has been
also exploited to model the decisional system of robotic swarms [18, 19, 20]. A swarm of robots
is constituted by multiple simple, interacting robots [21], collectively achieving a complex task.
The behavior of a single, complex mind can in fact be approximated by a distributed intelligence
of an artificial swarm [22], similarly to what happens with a natural-swarm intelligence [23].
Thus, we might be interested in swarm robotics, with their message exchange and local-global
behavior, as a tool to approximate mental behavior. Global behavior is an emerging phenomenon:
macro-properties are related to micro-interactions, but the global behavior is more complex than
the simple sum of local behaviors.
Creativity is also an emerging behavior which requires the interaction of different abilities
and, in the human mind, of both cerebral hemispheres [24]. The concept of ‘emergence’ has
been connected with the complexity of quantum mechanics [25, 26]. The paradigms of quantum
mechanics have also been used to create computational models of consciousness, helpful to make
calculations [27, 28], and trying to formalize the emergence of consciousness [29]. Creativity
and consciousness appear as being strictly related [30]. We restrict our attention to a particular
manifestation of human consciousness, that is, musical creativity. Music is the domain of
recent applications of quantum computing and robotic studies [31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36], including
quantum-based dancing robots [37].
In this article, we first formulate our research question and then design a possible future
experiment. We propose a quantum approach to a creative design of an experiment with dancing
and playing robots, and a decisional system based on external feedback, triggering the starting of
their musical collaboration. For robots, the of survival need may correspond to the avoidance of
being switched off. To achieve this goal, the robots have to maintain a certain degree of music
interaction and flow.
2. Theoretical framing of our questions
Questions. Our question, more a syllogism, is: because creativity is a fundamental resource
for survival, and there is research regarding computational modeling of creativity, would it be
possible to model creativity as a means of artificial-agent survival? The second question, related
to the first one, is: Can we model the need to create? It could be a corollary question of the use
of creativity to survive. In the case of robots, we might want to create and test computational
models of creativity, with quantum computing as a tool to make calculations. Of course, we also
express our concern for our questions’ implications—we, as humans, should nevertheless always
be able to ‘switch off’ robots. Thus, we should limit their creativity resources.
Quantum formalism. We can quantize “success” as the 1 logic, and “failure” as 0. We allow
the existence of intermediate degrees of success as a quantum state superposition of them. The
perception of success and failure can drive artistic creation. According to the chosen scenario,
the success can be achieving a result, represented by accomplishing a task, finding a target,
completing a work already started according to precise criteria, or transforming it creatively.
Here, we call “reward” the perception of closeness to the target, be it a physical point or a more
abstract goal. Creativity may intervene in the choice of the target and in the choice of the path.
For the 𝑖-th robot, we will thus have:
|𝑟𝑒𝑤𝑎𝑟𝑑⟩𝑖 = 𝛼𝑖 |0⟩ + 𝛽𝑖 |1⟩, |𝛼𝑖 |2 + |𝛽𝑖 |2 = 1. (1)
Introducing discretized entities, superposition, and probability amplitudes is the first step
toward a quantum formalism. Target can be seen as a goal, something to get accomplished. The
object of creativity is the choice of target and the selection of path to reach it: (𝑇, 𝑝(·, 𝑇 )). This
formulation has a mathematical interest, with a point and a class of paths having that point as the
endpoint. Points can be substituted by space probability amplitudes and paths by path integrals
[38].
This simple formalization can remind one of schematic modeling of reward, with a target
(what to reach) and a path (how to reach it). This problematics can be related to the quantum
formalization of human-consciousness fundamental functions; in particular, the problem of the
choice of target and choice of path to reach it reminds one of the free will [39], which is a
rather philosophical problem. The quantum operator could be operationalized in an indirect
way, relating the variation of activity of robots in response to their “need,” that is, the voltage
diminution, and thus the risk of being shut down. In the following section, we sketch the idea.
3. A possible experiment
In this Section, we design an experiment that could be run to substantiate our claims, assess
their limits, and obtain some first quantitative results. Such an experiment could be performed in
a robotic lab in the near future. We can suppose to model creativity through a logic gate with
feedback. We have a qubit for each robot, and thus, a multiple-qubit system for a multiple-robot
system. Here, the target is a certain flow to be maintained; the path is the collection of musical
activity and gestures toward it. We propose a simplified and indirect approach to creativity
measure through the level of artistic activity in response to the voltage diminution. We are
actually more interested in finding the “need,” the motivation to create rather than focusing on the
creativity itself.
The experiment should involve three robots. The first, Shimon, is a marimba player developed
to investigate musicianship at Georgia Tech [40, 41]. The second is an NAO performing dance
movements, investigated by the University of Palermo and the Italian National Research Council,
CNR [42]. The third is a Pepper or just a couple of robotic hands slowly twisting the CubeHar-
monic. The CubeHarmonic is a novel musical instrument based on the Rubik’s cube [43, 44]. See
Figure 1 for a possible poster. The dancing NAO suggests rhythmic movements to the Shimon
marimba player. The change of rhythmic pattern suggests a chord change to the CubeHarmonic
player. The change of chords suggests a different pitch choice to the marimba player. Finally, the
change of rhythm suggests a different selection of movements to the dancing NAO.
Figure 1: Poster with our imaginary robotic trio.
Robots’ synchronization can be measured as the frequency of chord change, pitch closeness of
marimba and cube, time contiguity of dancing NAO, and rhythmic marimba beats. (Harmonic
agreement of marimba and cube chords could be considered in a more advanced approach.) If
synchronization amongst the three robots diminishes, the electric charge diminishes for one or all
robots, raising internal signals of alert for robots. The affected robot should respond by raising its
attention toward the other components of the trio, and modifying its activity until voltage gets
back to safe levels. The target is thus: “keeping the robots awake,” through a well-working group
musical activity.
All of that can be expressed through a quantum circuit, where |1⟩ indicates an awaken robot
with an incoming regular voltage (ON), and |0⟩ would be the sleeping robot with a minimal
tension level or no voltage at all—like a switched-off robot (OFF). The states between ON and
OFF could be described through quantum superpositions. Thus, we can apply quantum computing
resources to this experiment, representing each robot as a qubit, and its activity as a sequences of
quantum gates. The measure would be a periodic assessment of the amount of musical activity
and group synchronization. According to the result of such a measure, tension might dramatically
diminish, raising alert signals, or be kept constant. See Figure 2 for a toy example of the proposed
idea. At the end of the experiment, the robots will be switched off by the human user. In a human
scenario, the feedback could be represented by audience involvement and applauses. What about
the “reward” for the robots? In our simple machine-model, the robot is “happy” if it has enough
voltage to not die. Thus, if the voltage is enough, the reward is high. When it is low, an alert
starts, triggering the level of artistic activity. In response to the “creative” act, the reward gets
higher again. In our qubit model of Figure 2, we indicate the reward qubits for each robot.
quantum circuit
Shimon
(marimba)
NAO
(dance)
Pepper
(CubeHarmonic)
Trio
ancilla
measures
if Trio is 1 —> tension 1 to all
if Trio is 0 —> tension 0.5 to robots
that have 0
feedback-tension system
Figure 2: This is a naïve rendition of the proposed idea. If a robot maintains a certain level of rhythmic
impulses, rate of chord change, rate of movements, then it has 1; else 0. The figure shows a situation where
all the three robots have 1. There are periodic measurements of all robots. If they all have 1, then trio has
1, else zero (CCCNOT). This information is collected by the feedback system. According to the feedback
output, robots receive a different amount of tension (normal 1, minimal 0), and they have to modify their
behavior in response to lower tensions.
3.1. Discussion and Conclusions
In this article, we formulated a question regarding the need for being creative as a survival
solution. We used the language of quantum computing and we designed a future experiment to
test our hypothesis. In our article, we have used the word “quantum” while dealing with two
different spaces: the formalism on one side, the possible role of quantum effects in the mind on
the other side, and their connection with creativity. The first option is rather flexible: we build an
artificial formalism to model objects and behaviors and run simple experiments to test and refine
the model itself. The second option is more delicate because we do not actually know exactly
how the human brain really works. This is also a conceptual problem because we use our brains
to think of our brains. Even in the case of a refined and complete quantum model, we would
consider it as merely a model, without the pretense of being the real underlying mechanism of
our minds.
Here, we proposed an experiment with a behavioral adaptation in response to feedback.
Creativity, in parallel with consciousness, is necessary to achieve an objective. Each target can be
seen as a step toward survival. In nature, foraging behavior in ants is a sub-goal toward individual
survival, which is, in turn, a step toward species survival. Thus, creativity intervenes in each
passage of this process. The emergence of creativity in response to the survival need can be
quantified not (only) by means of artistic activity intensification, but also with its improvements
in terms of regularities of acoustic (simulated) phenomena, and increased coordination between
musicians.
In conclusion, the considered robots are innocuous. Risks for human health could come from
over-heating due to over-working. However, in general, all man-made machines should include
systems to forcibly be switched off by humans for safety reasons. This is in agreement with
Asimov’s three laws of Robotics. Thus, limits to robotic creativity should be imposed. A future
experiment will verify if such ‘survival behaviors’ are efficiently put in place. Such an experiment
would confirm that creativity is an answer to a survival need, also for man-made agents.
This could constitute a first step toward a computational approach to complex and fascinating
phenomena such as aesthetic pleasure in art-making.
Acknowledgments
The research leading to these results takes place within the framework of the project “ARES,
Autonomous Robotics for the Extended Ship,” funded by the Italian Ministry of University and
Research under grant agreement ARS01_00682.
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