Competing 'Intelligences': Considering computational design processes in the age of intelligent systems

In this paper, the dominant definitions of intelligence are explored in order to establish a set of working principals towards the development of higher order computational design processes in architecture. A review of intelligence as it has been understood over the last 60 years since Alan Turing (1950) first asked the question "can machines think?" shows the question of intelligence is far from clearly understood. Principals of intelligence however can be identified within the neurophysiological and artificial intelligence (AI) communities that differ significantly from the notion of intelligence as it is commonly used in architecture typically relating to the phenomena of emergence and critical point material physics. While distinct, these definitions provide a foundation for understanding intelligence specifically in computational architecture at a moment when it is necessary to develop a foundational taxonomy of systems thinking and processes. Through critiquing the principals of intelligence as it is understood in these different discipline areas, the thesis of this paper is that it is possible to frame a productive general theory of intelligent systems applicable to deign processes, while simultaneously distinguishing the goals of design oriented higher order computational systems from those goals of general Artificial Intelligence research.