# The Creative Mind: Myths and Mechanisms **Abstract:** Boden asks how creativity is possible and whether science can explain it. She distinguishes three forms of creativity: combinational (novel associations between familiar ideas), exploratory (new possibilities discovered within an existing conceptual space), and transformational (altering the conceptual space itself so that previously impossible ideas become thinkable). These are mapped using concepts from artificial intelligence, which serve both to model human creativity computationally and to ask whether machines can at least appear creative. The book covers artistic and scientific creativity, the role of chance and chaos, the question of whether creativity is an elite or universal capacity, and whether computers can in principle be creative. First published 1990; second edition 2004 with updated AI discussion. **Keywords:** creativity, conceptual spaces, artificial intelligence, exploratory creativity, transformational creativity, combinational creativity, computational creativity, P-creativity, H-creativity **Authors:** [[Margaret A. Boden]] **Also available as:** [[The Creative Mind by Margaret Boden 2004.md|Markdown conversion in Learning/]]