The automation of originality

This essay considers the possible effects of increasingly capable software on both education and intellectual property related to plagiarism, copyright, patents, and invention and originality generally. Originality is the spice of personality. Personal originality shows itself in two ways: in the expression of ideas and in the ideas expressed; in brief, in behavior and in thought. Curiously, this concept is reflected in the distinction between the two main aspects of what is nowadays called intellectual property. Copyright relates to the expression of ideas, patents to useful industrial ideas however expressed or implemented. It is also reflected in the distinction between data and information embodied in the international standard vocabulary that the computing profession is supposed to respect but doesn't.