Skinner advocated a behavioral technology comparable in power to physics and biology.
Evidence
Skinner would insist that “further investigation” is always possible. In the first pages of Beyond Freedom & Dignity he calls for a technological solution to ignorance: “We need to make vast changes in human behavior, and we cannot make them with the help of nothing more than physics or biology, no matter how hard we try… what we need is a technology of behavior… comparable in power and precision to physical and biological technology.…” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1169
Categorization
- XREF: Directly connects to the surveillance-capitalism apparatus described throughout the book as the realized ‘technology of behavior.’ — connects to: Skinner’s 1953 work anticipated today’s engineered casino and platform behavior-shaping. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1172; Skinner envisioned a population-scale technology of behavioral control that rejected freedom — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1012; Skinner’s WWII pigeon-guided-missile project transformed his psychology into a technology for society — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1146 (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Skinner envisioned a population-scale technology of behavioral control that rejected freedom
#expands(0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1012 - Skinner’s utopia rested on treating humans as engineered organisms
#expands(0.82) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1185 - Skinner’s WWII pigeon-guided-missile project transformed his psychology into a technology for society
#expands(0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1146 - Skinner saw Enlightenment freedom values as impediments to behavioral science
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1207