When we say that a man controls himself, we must specify who is controlling whom.
B. F. SKINNERThe real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
More B. F. Skinner Quotes
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Science is a willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes.
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Was putting a man on the moon actually easier than improving education in our public schools?
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The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.
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I don’t believe in God, so I’m not afraid of dying.
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No one asks how to motivate a baby. A baby naturally explores everything it can get at, unless restraining forces have already been at work. And this tendency doesn’t die out, it’s wiped out.
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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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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.
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The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
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In a world of complete economic equality, you get and keep the affections you deserve. You can’t buy love with gifts or favors, you can’t hold love by raising an inadequate child, and you can’t be secure in love by serving as a good scrub woman or a good provider.
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The mob rushes in where individuals fear to tread.
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A permissive government is a government that leaves control to other sources.
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Some of us learn control, more or less by accident. The rest of us go all our lives not even understanding how it is possible, and blaming our failure on being born the wrong way.
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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 scientist may not be sure of the answer, but he’s often sure he can find one. And that’s a condition which is clearly not enjoyed by philosophy.
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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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