310 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? a limited conceptual area. Computers are not going to wake up one morning and decide to compose a breathtakingly beautiful symphony, but if we give them rules they can make a convincing version. Many computer systems have been designed to tackle creativity. We have already met the composer Emily Howell and Douglass Hofstadter’s computation program. Here are two more examples: Jape and AARON, which create jokes and art, respectively. Jape — Joke Analysis and Production Engine — is a program created by Graeme Ritchie and Kim Binsted. It generates puns, the sort of things you might find in an English Christmas cracker or children’s joke book. Pil let the output speak for itself. Q: “What is the difference between leaves and a car?” A: “One you brush and rake, the other you rush and brake.” Q: “What do you call a spicy missile?” A: “A hot shot!” One of the most enlightening examples of computer creativity is AARON - refreshingly not an acronym. His machine is depicted here and you should look up some works on the web, such as Adam and Eve, and Aaron’s Garden. The program encodes rules about figures, objects a , Ll lll "age Ro | = a. fi i} Fed 7 Ss. 2 ie 3 - fae * _| ites Te oe - 4 Ta! AARON - Harold Cohen, Automatic Painting Machine HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_016000