PROGRAMMED RESPONSES: Some Thoughts about Behavioural Conditioning

IMAGE: A cubist image of an nano-scale ancient Buddhist temple with 
       spherical molecular bubbles super-imposed at random

Satoru:  Aren't we programmed to respond to most events like machines?

Liao:    Yes. To a large degree, education is a matter of de-programming.

Tim:     I'm not so certain. What's general called 'de-programming' is often nothing 
         but another program. I'm not not sure humans can ever be 'deprogrammed' –
         the mind has so many levels of programming that the whole notion of 
         'deprogramming' is absurd.

Melissa: I agree. However, humans aren't computer systems. In fact, we are more like 
         trees – constantly adding new layers over old ones.

Liao:    That makes sense. Inside of us there's a lot of 'dead wood'. There is often
         merely a thin layer of something that's living.

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from _Crassroom Voices - Poetry, Art, & Dialogs about Education_ by T Newfields
SUMMARY:  A conversation about some similarities between humans, computer programs, and plants.
KEYWORDS: human programing, operant conditioning, human-computer analogies, limits of behaviorism

Author: T Newfields [Nitta Hirou / Huáng Yuèwǔ] (b. 1955)
Begun: 2002 in Nagoya, Japan / Finished: 2013 in Tokyo, Japan
Creative Commons License: Attribution. {{CC-BY-4.0}} Granted

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TRANSLATIONS

ESPAÑOL:  http://www.tnewfields.info/es/res-pro.htm
NIHONGO:  http://www.tnewfields.info/jp/puroguramu.htm
ZHŌNGWÉN: http://www.tnewfields.info/zh/chengshi.htm