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. SKINNERWe do not choose survival as a value, it chooses us.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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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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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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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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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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The alphabet was a great invention, which enabled men to store and to learn with little effort what others had learned the hard way-that is, to learn from books rather than from direct, possibly painful, contact with the real world.
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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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It is a mistake to suppose that the whole issue is how to free man. The issue is to improve the way in which he is controlled.
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If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment.
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Problem-solving typically involves the construction of discriminative stimuli
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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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We shouldn’t teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.
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A vast technology has been developed to prevent, reduce, or terminate exhausting labor and physical damage. It is now dedicated to the production of the most trivial conveniences and comfort.
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The one fact that I would cry form every housetop is this: the Good Life is waiting for us – here and now.
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Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools?
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