The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
B. F. SKINNERTo say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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Your liberals and radicals all want to govern. They want to try it their way- to show that people will be happier if the power is wielded in a different way or for different purposes. But how do they know? Have they ever tried it? No, it’s merely their guess.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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It is a surprising fact that those who object most violently to the manipulation of behaviour nevertheless make the most vigorous effort to manipulate minds.
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The simulated approval and affection with which parents and teachers are often urged to solve behavior problems are counterfeit. So are flattery, backslap-ping, and many other ways of “winning friends.
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Chaos breeds geniuses. It offers a man something to be a genius about.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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…not everyone is willing to defend a position of ‘not knowing.’ There is no virtue in ignorance for its own sake.
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A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
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Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
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A first principle not formally recognized by scientific methodologists: when you run into something interesting, drop everything else and study it.
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The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
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I did not direct my life. I didn’t design it. I never made decisions. Things always came up and made them for me. That’s what life is.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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Something doing every minute’ may be a gesture of despair-or the height of a battle against boredom.
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A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is. The genuine error is to quit attempting.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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It is not a question of starting. The start has been made. It’s a question of what’s to be done from now on.
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What is love except another name for the use of positive reinforcement? Or vice versa.
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Old age is rather like another country. You will enjoy it more if you have prepared yourself before you go.
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An important fact about verbal behavior is that speaker and listener may reside within the same skin.
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We do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
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A disappointment is not generally an oversight. It might just be the best one can do the situation being what it is. The genuine error is to quit attempting.
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A fourth-grade reader may be a sixth-grade mathematician. The grade is an administrative device which does violence to the nature of the developmental process.
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Somehow people get the idea I think we should be given gumdrops whenever we do anything of value.
B. F. SKINNER