Word: skinnerians
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...careless or evil men whose goals are selfish instead of humanitarian. The problem, then, is to design a culture that can, theoretically, survive; to decide how men must behave to ensure its survival in reality; and to plan environmental influences that will guarantee the desired behavior. Thus, in the Skinnerian world, man will refrain from polluting, from overpopulating, from rioting, and from making war, not because he knows that the results will be disastrous, but because he has been conditioned to want what serves group interests...
...other hand, represents a significant alternative to these varieties of despair by maintaining a brutal cynicism. The highly successful architect finds security in his belief in nothingness, considering it "hypocritical" to be moved by the sufferings of others. He spends his leisure time photographing people, pursuing a cool, Skinnerian interest in typing their external behavior...
...prototype machine, the size of a portable record player, the student pulls a lever to make a frame appear in the window. He ponders, writes his answer, pulls the lever again. The answer moves under glass (to prevent his changing it) and the correct answer appears. As the Skinnerian student clicks along, he concentrates fully on each item, advancing only when he is ready to answer. If he gets spring fever he may stop work, but at least he misses nothing, as he would in class. If he wants to soar ahead...
...cheap machines are inflexible and flexible machines are costly leads many a programer to holler go slow. Ken Komoski wants to wait until machines "can be completely flexible" through the addition of sound, motion-picture and automatic scoring devices." Others propose simply to let programed books do the job. Skinnerian books make turning a page to find an answer and a new frame the equivalent of switching frames on a machine. That permits easy cheating, but book programers argue that interesting programing eliminates the desire to peek ahead. Encyclopaedia Britannica Films' big programing division uses nothing but books, employing...