B. F. Skinner? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: A famous psychologist once contemplated the question of machine intelligence and presented a provocative counter question:
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. behaviorist B. F. Skinner. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1969 B. F. Skinner published “Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis” which included the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
It is only when machines seem to take over central processes that we grow uneasy. When they select stimuli, identify patterns, convert stimuli into forms more suitable for processing, categorize data, extract concepts, and follow problem-solving strategies, they perform functions which in man are attributed to Mind. …
But the real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In April 1969 B. F. Skinner published an article in “Psychology Today” titled “The Machine That is Man” which included the quotation:2
But the real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery that surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man. We can dispose of it in both cases by extending our analysis of contingencies of reinforcement.
The 1980 edition of “Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations” contained the following entry:3
The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
Contingencies of Reinforcement [1969], ch. 9
In 1997 the quotation together with an attribution to B. F. Skinner appeared in “Proverb Wit & Wisdom” compiled by Louis A. Berman.4
In conclusion, B. F. Skinner deserves credit for this quotation. Skinner included it in his 1969 book “Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis”. Skinner also used it in a “Psychology Today” article in the same year.
Image Notes: Depiction of a circuit with an AI chip from Igor Omilaev at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous AI enthusiast whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1969, Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis by B. F. Skinner (Burrhus Frederic Skinner), Chapter 9: The inside story, Quote Page 288, Appleton-Century-Crofts, Educational Division, Meredith Corporation, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1969 April, Psychology Today, Volume 2, Number 11, The Machine That is Man by B. F. Skinner, Start Page 20, Quote Page 61 and Page 62, Communications / Research / Machines Inc., Del Mar, California. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1980, Familiar Quotations by John Bartlett, Edited by Emily Morison Beck, Fifteenth and 125th Anniversary Edition, Entry: Burrhus Frederic Skinner, Quote Page 862, Column 1, Published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1997, Proverb Wit & Wisdom: A Treasury of Proverbs, Parodies, Quips, Quotes, Clichés, Catchwords, Epigrams, and Aphorisms, Compiled by Louis A. Berman With Assistance by Daniel K. Berman, Topic: Think, Quote Page 403, A Perigee Book: The Berkley Publishing Group, New York. (Verified with scan) ↩︎