Beyond freedom and dignityB. F. Skinner
Beyond freedom and dignity
by B. F. Skinner · first published 1979
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Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B.F. Skinner is probably the best nonfiction book I've ever read. It not only contains profound philosophical insights, but presents them in a concise and approachable manner. Every chapter ends with…
on “Ask HN: Which books you have read till now that were worth investing time in?” ↗No offence (I like most of your post), but BF Skinner was not a psycho. He was an amazing scientist and researcher. You should really read some of his books before you judge him (Beyond Freedom and Dignity is very good, and short). Skinner was totally wrong on language, yes, but he was right on a lot of other things. He essentially invented operant conditioning, which is the basis for slot machines and…
on “Norvig vs. Chomsky and the Fight for the Future of AI” ↗Before I even got through the first paragraph I was reminded of B.F. Skinner and his book 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity', which I read in high school. So it's pretty funny that they named their AI after him. Dopamine labs may be evil, but at least they're self aware.
on “Dopamine: An AI platform for designing human behavior” ↗This article made me think of Beyond Freedom and Dignity by B. F. Skinner. I haven't read it, yet. Has anyone?
on “Boundless Mind Wants to Fix America's Smartphone Addiction” ↗…and influential behaviorist psychologist. Key Works * 1938 The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis * 1948 Walden Two * 1953 Science and Human Behavior * 1957 Verbal Behavior * 1971 Beyond Freedom and Dignity [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner As an aside, this is the reason that it's important to have some understanding of the liberal arts along with formal training in math and computer science.
on “No Spanking, No Time-Out, No Problems” ↗You're crediting the tech community for not exploiting their abilities? BF Skinner, famous behavioral psychologist, wrote about this in "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" -- that much of positive emotions coming from choosing to do the morally "righteous" action exist because of the capacity for evil.
on “Linode DDoS continues – Atlanta down for 16+ hours” ↗For anyone who never read Chomsky’s review of Verbal Behaior, the text is at Chomsky’s website, here: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/1967----.htm His review of Skinner’s Beyond Freedom and Dignity, several years later, was also pretty devastating: http://www.chomsky.info/articles/19711230.htm
on “It got eaten” ↗…(note that it it was around 50s). Skinner even went further and wrote about cultural engineering, that is a way to change our culture to build a better future. You can read more about this in his books "Beyond Freedom and Dignity" and "Walden Two". The latter is a utopia; it describes an imaginary community built on these principles. What's interesting is that this took off somewhat and there were a few attempts to actually built…
on “On Chomsky's Review of Skinner's “Verbal Behavior” (1970) [pdf]” ↗