Word: herrnsteins
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...will find an experiment that seems to belong near some statue in a square rather than Harvard's psychology research labs. As you pass through the hallway door, clicking noises and a strange odor will lure you to an experimental lab that Pierce Professor of Psychology Richard J. Herrnstein has made into the permanent residence for more than 20 pigeons. These birds, however, are not ordinary pets, nor are they statue pigeons; rather, they are part of Herrnstein's ongoing psychological experiments...
...research with pigeons, Herrnstein ponders such questions as: What does a simpleminded animal, like a pigeon possess to distinguish between a tree and a person that a complicated machine, like a computer, does not? What secret of classification is mother nature hiding and, if found, could we apply that discovery to create computers that could detect the difference between addresses in a post office...
...Herrnstein speculates that perhaps nature's way is the only way. Perhaps we will understand a bird's sense of recognition, but we will have to adapt the new discovery to an application that man can create. For example, Herrnstein explains Icarus was unsuccessful in imitating exactly how a bird flies so when man learned how birds fly, he eventually adapted the discovery to a machine he could create which looked somewhat like a bird, but by no means had wings that flapped...
...Herrnstein charged two students with harrassment, but the cases were eventually dropped...
...rushed to Herrnstein's defense, at least in principle. "I consider such personal attacks to be deplorable regardless of their status under the rules of the University" he wrote in 1972. "Attempts to discourage free expression cannot be justified simply because they are made in an effort to protect society from allegedly harmful ideas...