1. Buffy Vampire Slayer Relationships BVSR ≠

2. Creativity and Discovery as Blind Variation and Selective Retention: Multiple-Variant Definitions and Blind-Sighted Integration

3. Definitions Under simultaneous selection Under sequential selection

4. Set of k Hypothetical Variants VariantProbabilityUtilityExpectation X1X1 p1p1 u1u1 q1q1 X2X2 p2p2 u2u2 q2q2 X3X3 p3p3 u3u3 q3q3 ………… XiXi pipi uiui qiqi ………… XkXk pkpk ukuk qkqk where q i = P (X i | u i )

5. Blind-Sighted Continuum Blind-sighted measure –For all k variants: 0 ≤ r pq ≤ 1, where 0 = perfect blindness 1 = perfect sightedness –For subset of variants p i > 0, truncated r pq Special Case 1: r pq = 1, if all ps, us, and qs equiprobable Special Case 2: r pq = 0, if only all ps equiprobable

6. Typepipi uiui qiqi GenerationStatusDesignation 1> 0 possibletrue positivesighted inclusion 2> 0 = 0possibletrue positiveblind inclusion 3> 0= 0 possiblefalse positiveblind inclusion 4= 0> 0 impossiblefalse negativeblind exclusion 5= 0> 0= 0impossiblefalse negativeblind exclusion 6= 0 impossibletrue negativesighted exclusion Variant Typology

7. Sequential Selection Need to add a index for consecutive trials to allow for changes in the parameter values: p 1t, p 2t, p 3t,... p it,... p kt u 1t, u 2t, u 3t,... u it,... u kt q 1t, q 2t, q 3t,... q it,... q kt where t = 1, 2, 3,... n (number of trials) Then, 0 ≤ r pq (t) ≤ 1

8. Sequential Selection N.B.: Although r pq (t) → 1 as t → n, –it would not do so monotonically except under highly unlikely circumstances, –e.g., when ρ pu (t) = -1 (i.e., where the rank-order correlation between the ps and us is perfectly negative) –Hence, the problem of local utility maxima and the question of when to terminate BVSR

9. Three Final Points Although the above formulation is very abstract, it can be readily explicated in terms of concrete examples Moreover, by deriving the blind-sighted continuum, the formulation allows us to avoid useless debates about BVSR That said, it is likely that highly creative scientists often operate at the blind end of the continuum