Hemispheres of the brain, creativity and the “Moravec paradox”

We live in an age of programming the most complex processes – including mental ones – that require a subtle understanding of higher brain functions. Science has reached such a level that many scientists are discussing the problem of creating artificial intelligence. And against the backdrop of these exciting prospects, the Austrian roboticist Hans Moravec drew attention to a strange and paradoxical limitation of programming possibilities.

The essence of the “Moravec paradox” is that mental activity of the highest level, characteristic only of a fully intellectually formed person at the highest stage of ontogenesis and manifested in solving logical problems, conceptual thinking, in intellectual games, making engineering calculations – in a word, in everything that needs special training and development – is much easier to algorithmize and program than the functions that develop early and almost spontaneously, available to us from childhood and bringing humans closer to other mammals.

The latter include the performance of simple sensorimotor tasks: coordination of movement when performing habitual actions; orientation in space; recognition of faces and voices; determination of the emotional state by facial expressions. These functions are easily assimilated, performed by everyone on a daily basis and almost automatically. But they can’t be programmed! To even come close to their algorithmization, extraordinary creative efforts are needed, incomparable with the process of programming logical problems.

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Moravec not only noticed this paradoxical difference, but also offered an explanation for it. Intellectual functions available to algorithmization are phylogenetically new functions that developed relatively late in the process of evolution and are peculiar only to humans. They did not have time to gain a foothold in the brain – and therefore do not seem to act automatically, like those functions that are not amenable to algorithmization. But the “simplicity” of functions that are not amenable to algorithmization is only a subjective illusion. They became available to us only in the process of training – the length of the history of mankind. During this time, we have mastered them well, but they themselves, constantly evolving, have actually become so sophisticated and complex that today they can no longer be reduced to simple algorithms. And logical reasoning and solving mathematical problems only seem more difficult at first glance: we just haven’t fully mastered them yet. Objectively, they are less complex than the coordination of movements, because they have gone through a shorter path of development.

Moravec emphasizes that the most complex psychomotor functions are performed without the participation of consciousness. And consciousness arose at the very latest stage of evolution, and therefore what requires the participation of consciousness is relatively simpler and more amenable to programming.

But if you take this explanation to its logical conclusion, it looks strange. It is known that the process of creativity is the least amenable to algorithmization and programming. However, it was it that appeared later than all other functions. Creativity belongs to the phylogenetically newest functions of the psyche, is peculiar only to man and is associated with the frontal lobe of the right hemisphere of the brain, which is the last to mature. According to this indicator, creativity is comparable to logical-abstract thinking, which is associated with the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain, which is also finally formed late, although a little earlier.

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At the same time, for the creator himself, the creative process requires less psychophysiological efforts than bringing the product of creativity to the level of such a logical design, when it can be consolidated in a word and transferred to others. The very process of creativity for the creator is as easy as for other people – natural movements and face recognition. When solving creative problems, the brain does not need additional physiological activation, this has been proven in studies.

So I offer another explanation. The hemispheres of the brain use different strategies in perceiving connections between objects and events in the outside world. The main information about the world lies precisely in these connections. The frontal lobe of the left hemisphere of the brain selects a few from all of them, creating a uniquely understood context, amenable to logical analysis and expressed in words. So the left hemisphere forms a simplified model of reality. And the right perceives the world in all the richness of these connections. Therefore, the ambiguous context corresponding to the ambiguity of the real world is created precisely by the frontal lobe of the right hemisphere of the brain.

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The many-valued connections between the elements of the whole world are natural, the world does not adapt to the model, it is we who create it. But that is precisely why these connections do not lend themselves to algorithmization, which creates artificial models and which by its nature belongs to the functions of the left hemisphere of the brain. All those functions listed above that are not amenable to algorithmization, but are easily assimilated (coordination of complex movements, orientation in space, recognition of faces and voices), refer to the functions of the right hemisphere.

Thus, only those functions of the brain on which it is based are available to programming.