The publications from the Naval Research Laboratory which report this work (Chernikoff & Newlin, 1951; Conklin, Newlin, Taylor, & Tipton,
White, 1952) provide a serious evaluation of the possibilities of organic control. Although in simulated tests a single pigeon occasionally loses a target, its tracking characteristics are surprisingly good, A three- or seven-bird unit with the same individual consistency should yield a signal with a reliability which is at least of the order of magnitude shown by other phases of guided missiles In their present stage of development. Moreover, in the seven years which have followed the last of these reports, a great deal of relevant information has been acquired. The color vision of the pigeon is now thoroughly understood; its generalization along single properties of a stimulus has been re- corded and analyzed; and the maintenance of behavior through scheduling of reinforcement has been drastically improved, particularly in the development of techniques for pacing responses for less erratic and steadier signals (Skinner, 1957). Tests made with the birds salvaged from the old Project Pigeon showed that even after six years of inactivity a pigeon will immediately and correctly strike a target to which it has been conditioned and will continue to respond for some time without reinforcement.
The use of living organisms in guiding missiles is, it seems fair to say, no longer a crackpot idea. A pigeon is an extraordinarily subtle and complex mechanism capable of performances which at the moment can be equaled by electronic equipment only of vastly greater weight and size, and it can be put to reliable use through the principles which have emerged from an experimental analysis of its behavior. But this vindication of our original proposal is perhaps the least important result. Some- thing happened during the brief life of Project Pigeon which it has taken a long time to appreciate. The practical task before us created a new attitude toward the behavior of organisms. We had to maximize the probability that a given form of behavior would occur at a given time. We could not enjoy the luxury of observing one variable while allowing others to change in what we hoped was a random fashion. We had to discover all relevant variables and submit them to experimental control whenever possible. We were no doubt under exceptional pressure, but vigorous scientific research usually makes comparable demands. Psychologists have too often yielded to the temptation to be content with hypothetical processes and intervening variables rather than press for rigorous experimental control. It is often intellectual laziness rather than necessity which recommends the a posteriori statistical treatment of variation. Our task forced us to emphasize prior experimental control, and its success in revealing orderly processes gave us an exciting glimpse of the superiority of laboratory practice over verbal (including some kinds of mathematical) explanation.
The Crackpot Idea
If I were to conclude that crackpot ideas are to be encouraged, I should probably be told that psychology has already had more than its share of them. If it has, they have been entertained by the wrong people. Reacting against the excesses of psychological quackery, psychologists have developed an enormous concern for scientific respectability. They constantly warn their students against questionable facts and unsupported theories. As a result the usual PhD thesis is a mode! of compulsive cautiousness, advancing only the most timid conclusions thoroughly hedged about with qualifications. But it is just the man capable of displaying such admirable caution who needs a touch of uncontrolled speculation. Possibly a generous exposure to psychological science fiction would help. Project Pigeon might be said to sup- port that view. Except with respect to its avowed goal, it was, as I see it, highly productive; and this was in large measure because my colleagues and I knew that, in the eyes of the world, we were crazy.
One virtue in crackpot ideas is that they breed rapidly and their progeny show extraordinary mutations. Everyone is talking about teaching ma- chines nowadays, but Sidney Pressey can tell you what it was like to have a crackpot Idea in that field 40 years ago. His self-testing devices and self-scoring test forms now need no defense, and psychomotor training devices have also achieved a substantial respectability. This did not, how- ever, prepare the way for devices to be used in verbal instruction—that is, in the kinds of teaching which arc the principal concern of our schools and colleges. Even five short years ago that kind of instruction by machine was still in the crackpot category. (I can quote official opinion to that effect from high places.) Now, there is a direct genetic connection between teaching machines and
Project Pigeon. We had been forced to consider the mass education of pigeons. True, the scrap of wisdom we imparted to each was indeed small, but the required changes in behavior were similar to those which must be brought about in vaster quantities in human students. The techniques of shaping behavior and of bringing it under stimulus control which can be traced, as I have suggested elsewhere (Skinner, 1958), to a memorable episode on the top floor of that flour mill in Minneapolis needed only a detailed reformulation of verbal behavior to be directly applicable to education.
I am sure there is more to come. In the year which followed the termination of Project Pigeon I wrote Walden Two (Skinner, 1948), a Utopian picture of a properly engineered society. Some psychotherapists might argue that I was suffering from personal rejection and simply retreated to a fantasied world where everything went according to plan, where there never was heard a discouraging word. But another explanation is, I think, equally plausible. That piece of science fiction was a declaration of confidence in a technology of behavior. Call it a crackpot idea if you will; it is one in which I have never lost faith. I still believe that the same kind of wide-ranging speculation about human affairs, supported by studies of compensating rigor, will make a substantial contribution toward that world of the future in which, among other things, there will lie no need for guided missiles.
REFERENCES
Skinner, B. F., Pigeons in a pelican. American Psychologist, Vol 15 No. 1, Jan 1960, 28-37.
Ciikbnikofp, R., & Nkwlin, E. P. ORCON. Pari. Ill, Investigations of (argot acquisition by the pigeon. Naval Res. Lab. lett. Rtp., 1951, No. S-36O0-629a/51 (Sept. 10).
Conkiis, J. E, Newlin, E. P., Jr., Tayeor, F. V. & Tipton, C. L. ORCON. Part IV. Simulated flight tests. Naval Res. Lab. Rep., 1953, No. 4105.
Searie, L. V., & Staffoih, B. H. ORCON. Part II. Re- port of phase I research and bandpass study. Naval Res. Lab. lett. Rep., 1950, No. S-36O0-I57/5D (May 1).
Skinner, B. F. Walden two. New York: Macmillan, 1948.
Skinner, B. F. A case history in scientific method. Amer. Psychologist, 1956, II, 221-233.
Skinner, B. F. The experimental analysis of behavior. Amer. Sclent., 1957, 45, 343-371.
Skinner, B. F. Reinforcement today. Amer. Psychologist, Mar 1958, 13, 94-99.
Taylor, F. V. ORCON. Part I. Outline of proposed research. Naval Res. Lab. lett. Rep., 1949, No. S-3600-157/50 (June 17).
White, C. F. Development of the NRL ORCON tactile missile simulator. Naval Res. Lab. Rep, 1952, No. 3917.
Table of Contents
A Note of Introduction and a Thank You, Are in Order
Table of Contents
Prologue
The Boy and the Porpoise
Foreword
Synopsis
Timeline for Book One
Synopsis
Book 2 – Red Sky – The Second Battle of Britain
Timeline for Book Two
Chapter One:
Gathering Storm
Advice and Conscript
The Turks
The Ferry
Chapter Two:
In the Air
Headquarters Mediterranean Command
18 Ton Ballerinas
15th Air Force - Moving Boxes
General Twining
Chapter Three:
Onslaught Begins
The First Hours
Concussion Equals Confusion
Border Patrol
Not Enough and Too Late
All That Gaz
The Red Cross
&n
bsp; Chapter Four:
Unsung Heroes
Crenshaw Dying Thought
Jim Crenshaw’s Epiphany
B.F. Skinner, Ph.D.
Young Crenshaw’s Mission
Draft Dodger
Confront and Convince
Skinner Spotted
Give and Take
Skinner’s Turn
Opportunity in Crisis
Bird Brains
Chapter Five:
Life
Patton Rides Again
Turing
The Extraordinary Gypsies
Hervé’s Education
Chapter Six:
Death
The Skinny
Where the Fuck, Was He?
General Green, POW
Quiet in the Pyrenees
Shades of Faith, Hope, and Charity
Chapter Seven:
Grand Scheme of Things
Shorter is Better
Silently, We Go Along
December in Iraq
Chapter Eight:
Combat
Marsh’s Marauders
Lurking About
Montgomery at the Fore
Chapter Nine:
Politics
War Production Board
Payback is a Bitch
Strange Weather
Chapter Ten:
Other Fronts, Other Problems
Marseilles Finest
The War on Drugs
Chapter Eleven:
The Holy Land
Cloak and Dagger
Hulls and Hearts
Halted Near Lake Hammar
How Long?
Chapter Twelve:
One Man’s Tale
Diary of Burt Post
January 26th, 1947
Diary of Burt Post
January 27th, 1947
Diary of Burt Post
January 28th, 1947
Diary of Burt Post
January, 29th, 1947
Chapter Thirteen:
Best Laid Plans
To the Point
Inimitable Nimitz
Line in the Sand
Over the Hell Holes of Trieste
99 Words per Minute
Chapter Fourteen:
The Commanders
Bulldog Unleashed
Forever the Quarterback
Chapter Fifteen:
Doctor B. F. Skinner
Bingo
Razzle Dazzle 1.1
Plain and Simple
End of Book Three
Epilogue
Index
The Red White & Blue Page 23
