A person’s genetic endowment, a product of the evolution of the species, is said to explain part of the workings of his mind and his personal history the rest.
B. F. SKINNERThe problem of far greater importance remains to be solved. Rather than build a world in which we shall all live well, we must stop building one in which it will be impossible to live at all.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
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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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To say that behaviors have different ‘meanings’ is only another way of saying that they are controlled by different variables.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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Does a poet create, originate, initiate the thing called a poem, or is his behavior merely the product of his genetic and environmental histories?
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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At this very moment enormous numbers of intelligent men and women of goodwill are trying to build a better world. But problems are born faster than they can be solved.
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The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
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Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli
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Except when physically restrained, a person is least free or dignified when he is under threat of punishment, and unfortunately most people often are.
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I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.
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When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
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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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We have not yet seen what man can make of man.
B. F. SKINNER