3. PRACTICAL METHODS OF TECHNICAL CREATIVITY 3.1. CLASSIFICATION OF METHODS

Methods of technical creativity, based on objective laws discovered by science, are the basis for the creation of new solutions of technical problems of public importance. There are many practical methods of technical creativity, which differ in their heuristic value, level of development, general application, clarity of definition. The foundation of technical creativity methods is constantly changing. Some of the found methods for solving inventive problems become stereotypical and are used to solve other problems of a similar type. Some methods of technical creativity are gradually being developed to the level of a rigid algorithm and become methods for solving trivial technical problems, and the problems themselves solved by these methods become trivial. The more general the method of solving inventive problems, the longer it retains its heuristic properties.

Techniques of technical creativity are not yet sufficiently systematized and classified. Scientifically based methods of technical creativity must meet the following basic requirements: they must reflect the generalized experience of the inventors, be sufficiently clearly defined and easily updated, the possible role and place of the method in the creative process of the inventor must be determined, and typical conditions of applicability of the methods should be generalized. Methods must have a uniform and clear classification. It should also summarize the known methods of combining methods, their division into varieties, techniques and operations, combining methods into programs for solving inventive problems.

Let us dwell on the classification of methods of invention. This classification can be carried out according to various criteria.

On the basis of commonality, methods of invention can be divided into universal, general and particular methods of invention. The universal method of invention, like of all creativity, is the Marxist-dialectical metamethod, which we attribute to the strategic means of solving inventive problems. General methods of invention are used to solve a wide range of inventive problems in various fields of technology. Such methods include the methods of heuristic analogy, heuristic association, heuristic inversion, etc. The methods intended for solving special inventive problems or problems in a particular, usually narrow, field of technology belong to private methods of invention. These include, for example, the method of converting reciprocating motion into rotational, the method of distant hybridization, the method of compounding, etc.

It should be noted that the division of methods into general and particular is conditional: it is practically difficult to delineate the boundary between one and the other. In addition, in the inventive practice, highly specialized particular methods are often used to solve problems not previously foreseen and, if successful, provide, as a rule, very original solutions.

On the basis of determinism, the methods of invention can be divided into heuristic and algorithmic. Hard-deterministic algorithmic methods are fundamentally unsuitable for finding solutions to an inventive problem, although they can be used in the creative process of an inventor for performing reproductive-type operations.

Heuristic methods (incomplete algorithms, recommendations, prescriptions that do not have the properties of determinism and mandatory performance) are currently the main ones in solving inventive problems.

By design, the methods of invention used to optimize the creative process of the inventor are simplifiedly classified as follows.

The level of complexity of the methods of invention are divided into simple and complex.

The methods of formulation, solution, and realization of an inventive problem containing elementary operations used in certain typical situations are considered simple. Such, for example, are the method of mixing the ingredients of a substance, the method of using flexible intermediate elements to connect technical objects or their parts, etc.

Complex methods contain elements of several simple ones. Thus, the method of phased brainstorming contains elements of reverse brainstorming, direct brainstorming, double brainstorming and brainstorming experts. Simple and complex methods of invention, as a rule, are used to perform a certain stage or step of the creative process of the inventor.

In connection with the development of cybernetics, it has recently been decided to subdivide the methods of invention into methods intended for solving inventive problems by man, methods for solving inventive problems by cybernetic machines, and methods intended for solving by man in commonwealth with cybernetic machines. Some of these methods may be universal.

According to the heuristic principle, methods for solving inventive problems can be divided into the following main types: methods of heuristic analogy, heuristic complex, heuristic separation and reduction, heuristic inversion and methods of heuristic combination. These main groups, in turn, are divided into many methods that have their own characteristics and techniques.

Of particular practical importance to inventors is the classification of problems according to a heuristic principle, which facilitates the choice of methods for finding a specific solution.