Creative Idea Generation Via Passing through an Intermediate Space between the Source and the Target

An important aspect in generating creative ideas is the ability of transition from one concept to another concept whose manipulation in certain ways can yield novel viewpoints. Although, the analogical inference has the ability to generate new ideas through a process of carry-over or adaptation from the source onto the target, the certitude in the format of this process may prohibit the generated ideas from being creative in a real sense. To overcome this problem, a new approach is proposed to generating creative ideas based on a two-fold interpretation of the concepts in the source space. According to this approach, first the concepts in the source are interpreted in terms of some concepts in an intermediate space, and the results are then interpreted in terms of the final concepts in the target space. It is observed that the ideas generated in this way are the results of a process, which does not include any direct monologue from the source and the target. More over, the interpretation process discussed above may principally lead to numerous alternatives both in the intermediate and the target spaces. Such ability in generating various alternatives for the final idea provides a high possibility for yielding creative ideas.