Lately, I’ve been thinking about pigeons. Thinking about them a lot.
My current obsession with pigeons came out of the blue. Heretofore, I had not realized there are so many kinds of pigeons.
Beyond the grey birds you see fluttering around courthouses, there are 1) clay pigeons, 2) homing pigeons, and 3) stool pigeons.
Today I will focus on B.F. Skinner’s pigeons, the bird that America’s great psychologist once proposed that they be placed inside American missiles that the Army could fire at the Nazis in World War II.
You read that correctly. The Smithsonian backs me up on this. So it’s true.
I will get to Skinner’s Pigeon-Guided Rocket a little later.
But a little background, first.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He became a world renown behavioralist. Behaviorists believe that learned behavior comes from one of two processes: operant conditioning and classical conditioning.
Pavlov’s dogs is an example of classical conditioning. In “The Office,” Jim offers Dwight mints every time he hears an email notification. That’s classical conditioning. Think of Pavlov’s dogs who were trained to salivate by the ding-ding of a bell.
B. F. Skinner is associated with operant conditioning, a system of learning that happens by changing external variables called “punishments” and “rewards.”
Now we come to Buster, a funny-looking little dog who belongs to my neighbors across the street. Buster has trained me — not to salivate — but to have my mind amble on my own well-worn neural pathways by fetching a couple of doggie treats for him. Which I do on a daily basis. Then I dutifully walk him back across our neighborhood street to the safety of his real home.
The mutt is smart. He knows from his own neural pathways that he will get his little reward (think “food pellet”) by running on his little legs across the street and cocking his head at me. Melted by his performance, I fetch a couple of Milk Bone Mini’s Biscuits and immediately feel happiness as I get a sharp upspike on my emotional oscilloscope located in my brain. Our daily pas de deux is a win-win. Nothing but positive reinforcement for the both of us.
Our brains naturally gravitate toward the things that bring us pleasure and back away from things that bring us pain. When we connect our behaviors to pleasure and pain, we become conditioned.
Neural pathway. From Wikipedia: The neuron, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that fires electric signals (electrons) called action potentials across a neural network. Neurons communicate with other cells via synapses — specialized connections that commonly use minute amounts of chemical. Neurotransmitters to pass the electric signal from the presynaptic neuron to the target cell through the synaptic gap.
Back to pigeons. Pigeons are known to be surprisingly intelligent, which is how my grade school teachers in the 1950s described me.
Flash back to World War II. The Smithsonian Magazine described how Skinner, the United States military, and pigeons briefly came together as a way to use pigeons placed inside missiles to zero in on targets in Nazi Germany.
The Smithsonian picks up the story: Skinner built a nose cone containing three tiny pigeon cockpits and three small electronic screens. Onto the screens was projected an image of the ground in front of the rocket.
Using operant conditioning, Skinner would train three street pigeons to recognize the pattern of the target, and to peck when they saw this target. The three pigeons were fitted to cables attached to their heads and would mechanically steer the missile until it finally reached its mark. Alas, without an escape hatch, the birds would perish along with their target, making it a kamikaze mission.
Ultimately the military was skeptical and trashed Skinner’s plan. But Skinner kept his prized pigeons and would test them at various times many years later. Sure enough, their memories of pecking at Nazi targets were still strong.
So think about the human brain that is described as the most complex machine in the universe. We are known for engaging in a whole raft of behaviors. Could it be that underlying our actions is an electrical current of operant conditioning and classical conditioning?
I know a guy who has conditioned himself to view the past as “those wonderful, wonderful years,” which you recall — or remember at all — during that time machine segment of The Garry Moore Show long, long ago.
All I have to do is to mention the New York Yankees of the 1950s, their eight American League pennants and six World Series titles and he would light up just like the lightbulb above a Skinner box.
In fact, to this day he lights up over any memory of the distant past in America when — to his way of delusional thinking — it was some kind of Golden Age when peace and harmony guided the planet and love steered the stars.
This bring us to — and I have conditioned you over my various Moororless posts to know this was coming — the death of America.
The lethal dagger is an old one — racism. But racism is spread out over a wide range of complexities. We think of those plain old stories of how the KKK burned Black churches and lynched uppity Blacks. But reality is far more involved than that.
Just a few days ago CNN told the story of a Black mayor of a tiny Alabama town of fewer than 300 who won an uncontested election in 2020 but was later ousted by his White predecessor and his White buddies.
It’s a story of Patrick Braxton who was elected mayor by default but was later dethroned before he could take his oath of office.
For the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey used to say, go to https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/4137633-six-white-former-officers-plead-guilty-in-torture-of-two-black-men/
I have another important fish to fry.
On Aug. 4, another news outlet, The Hill, carried the story of six white former policemen plead guilty in torture of two Black men in Rankin County, Mississippi after the officers — who called themselves “The Goon Squad” — were charged with 13 federal felony offenses, including civil rights conspiracy, deprivation of rights under color of law and obstruction of justice. See:
So I note these two recent stories just to give you a little taste of racism in America as if you really need these examples.
As you know I could cite many, many more examples of the growing hate spreading across America — and not just about racism. Somebody is using this entrenched hate to whip some Americans into extreme fury. Who might that be?
Racism and positive reinforcement go together. They are deeply buried in a big segment of the American psyche just like those three pigeons of B. F. Skinner who were taught to peck when looking at a Nazi target inside the missile capsule.
Rewards and punishments. Is this the way we want to think of the human race possessing a three-pound mass of gelatinous matter that happens to be the most complex entity in the known universe?
Some people regard their membership in a mob of extremists as normal and ordinary. Remember: Those cops even named themselves ‘“The Goon Squad.” I suppose they felt good and felt rewarded by being a member of a little boys’ club that excluded girls. I’m sure positive reinforcement played a big role in their behavior.
Now consider if they believed that they have been part of a much bigger crowd of like-minded humans, let’s say tens of millions. Then imagine their self-glorification combined with numbness to reason from sane and stable Americans.
And what if that same mob moves to and fro as a single mass of humanity here in America for decades to come. If so, then this country is doomed.
I’ll leave you with a funny ending.
Question: “Who was the Canadian-American actor who earned two Academy Award for Best Actor nominations for his roles in “Mrs. Miniver” (1942) and “Madame Curie” (1943) and who also starred in many films such as “How Green Was My Valley” (1941), “The Bad and the Beautiful” (1952), “Forbidden Planet” (1956), “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” (1961), “Advice & Consent” (1962), “Funny Girl” (1968), and “Harry in Your Pocket” (1973)?” Answer: Walter Pidgeon.
How’s that for a mystic crystal revelation?
For extra credit who pinned down the charge and mass of the electron? I’ll have the answer in my next post.