Page 67 - JCAU-6-1

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Exploring abduction in regenerative design

tension between conditions and occurrences, premises and abduction carries out pattern matching (finds similarity)
predictions” (Parisi, 2013, p. 238). on a high abstract level (Gardner, 2009). In the GAN_
Regarding the GAN_Physarum model, CycleGAN is an Physarum model, abduction establishes a relationship
existing invention. PP and cities are not recent scientific between PP and cities through analogical association. PP
discoveries. The computation of PP is believed to be a creates efficient networks for the transport of energy and
potential inspiration for urban design. It is the combination nutrients. Similarly, path systems serve as transportation
with CycleGAN that turns unattainable ideas into real networks for cities (Figure 9). Drawing on Peirce’s
applications, defining PP as a form-generating machine. syllogism of abduction and Bateson’s “syllogism in grass,”
The relationship between technologies, between PP and we can construct a syllogistic structure regarding PP and
cities, is new to DeepGreen’s research. The establishment urban path system to describe this relation, as presented
of their relations cannot, however, be entirely exhausted by in Table 2.
logic. Descriptions such as an elusive “flash” or “moment of Bateson’s conclusion that “humans are grass” may
insight” are the reason why researchers question whether be scientifically false, but as Borden explains, it is the
abduction is a truly logical pattern in the conventional metaphor commonly found in poetry. The thinking,
sense, as part of it extends beyond the scope of logic. which forms metaphorical relationships, finds its best
Hence, the study of abduction diversified into the broader explanation in the “mind-like process of abduction”
field of cognition. (Borden, 2017). Therefore, the concept of Physarum city
Gregory Bateson once proposed that abduction is “the proposed by “PP’s pseudopod networks are urban path
lateral extension of abstract components of description.” system” is also a poetic metaphor, implying the abstract
After describing certain events and deriving certain rules, similarity between the two entities. This is the basis of how
we then “look around the world to find other instances” abduction establishes the relationship between PP and the
that “fit the same rules” and share “the same abstract city. In addition, we were once hampered by the large-scale
relations” (Bateson, 1979, p. 142). Jeff Hawkins’s theory difference between PP and the city, but CycleGAN allows
of intelligence provides understanding from cognitive us to jump over this wide divide. In the “eyes” of AI, the two
science. He addressed that “truly random thoughts don’t patterns are compatible (Figure 10). AI is thus not merely
exist. Memory recall almost always follows a pathway of a tool to translate PP computations to urban morphology;
association.” The concept of association is established it genuinely helps humans uncover the synthesis between
through the use of analogy, which involves comparing seemingly unrelated and vastly disparate things, aligning
external objects or ideas to those already present in our with the analog operations of abduction and materializing
memories (Hawkins & Blakeslee, 2005). Gardner adopted abstract linguistic metaphors into concrete visual images.
this theory as a foundation to explain design reasoning According to Bateson, abduction as a mind-like process
as an analogical operation or pattern-matching process is a common phenomenon. “Metaphor, dream, parable,
based on varying levels of similarity, among which allegory, the whole of art, the whole of science, the whole

Figure 9. Urban fabric (left panel) and slime mold (right panel) networks. Source: ecoLogicStudio, Deep Green, Urbansphere, Venice, 2021

Volume 6 Issue 1 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1084