28 April 2009
27 April 2009
26 April 2009
I can has freedom and dignity?
A while ago a good soul sent me a copy of B.F. Skinner's 1971 book 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity'. Would, he asked me, the book, in particular the chapter entitled 'The Design of a Culture', be relevant to someone developing a device like the iPlant? In case you're interested, and because I'm unlikely to write a review of the book, here's what I replied:
It's very relevant. The tricky thing with the iPlant is that it's hard to imagine what society would end up looking like if a powerful behavioural technology was in widespread use. I've tried to imagine how people might use it to overcome health problems and contribute to scientific research, but the applications are truly endless (and some are disturbingly bleak). This makes people resist the development of iPlants and makes it difficult to formulate policy and legal safety-nets. This book may be the first I've read that's truly ambitious in thinking about making behaviour more effective and better controlled. It articulates an overarching goal: making people more and more influenced by the long-term consequences of their behaviour and the evolution of their society. It articulates and responds to objections regarding de-humanization and abuse. All this is very relevant to thinking about future behavioural technologies like the iPlant. I guess I wish Skinner would have included a chapter describing in detail which behaviourist practises he personally thought society should adopt, how we should go about adopting them (including how to deal with the backlash when traditions are challenged) and what society would or could look like once we had adopted them. Does he spell this out in detail somewhere else? Walden Two maybe? I'm also curious what the critics said about this book in particular (not, as you say, the partisan bickering around behaviourist science as such).
Thanks again
Chris
It's very relevant. The tricky thing with the iPlant is that it's hard to imagine what society would end up looking like if a powerful behavioural technology was in widespread use. I've tried to imagine how people might use it to overcome health problems and contribute to scientific research, but the applications are truly endless (and some are disturbingly bleak). This makes people resist the development of iPlants and makes it difficult to formulate policy and legal safety-nets. This book may be the first I've read that's truly ambitious in thinking about making behaviour more effective and better controlled. It articulates an overarching goal: making people more and more influenced by the long-term consequences of their behaviour and the evolution of their society. It articulates and responds to objections regarding de-humanization and abuse. All this is very relevant to thinking about future behavioural technologies like the iPlant. I guess I wish Skinner would have included a chapter describing in detail which behaviourist practises he personally thought society should adopt, how we should go about adopting them (including how to deal with the backlash when traditions are challenged) and what society would or could look like once we had adopted them. Does he spell this out in detail somewhere else? Walden Two maybe? I'm also curious what the critics said about this book in particular (not, as you say, the partisan bickering around behaviourist science as such).
Thanks again
Chris
21 April 2009
How bad do you want it? (update 1)
Deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrodes offer a window into regions of the human brain that would otherwise, for obvious ethical reasons, not be available for scientific analysis. Interesting activity related to sensation, cognition and behavior can, for example, be recorded from DBS electrodes placed in the subthalamic nucleus for the purpose of treating Parkinson's disease (e.g. Balaz et al 2008, Bronte-Stewart et al 2009).
More and more, DBS is being applied to the human reward circuit to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression (see previous blog post). Specifically, the nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum) is being targeted. Dopamine release into the nucleus accumbens is the strongest reward-signal we know of; it is core to the generation of motivation and learning.
So, what will we see when we start recording from DBS electrodes placed in the human nucleus accumbens? I'll bet my boots that we'll be able to detect changes in dopamine release and reward-processing with MUCH higher precision than when we use brain scanners. Averaged over many trials and patients, recordings like that could allow us to quantify the reward value of things in the world, and relate the activity of the human reward circuit not just to sensation but also to cognition and behavior.
← Monkey reward circuit neurons respond to a liquid reward. How exactly would the human reward circuit respond to a liquid reward? Or an invitation to a BBQ? Or two political candidates? Or heroin? Or boredom? Or praise? Or coffee? Or any of the various reinforcers that shape our behaviour, thoughts and feelings? I think we're about to find out.
Edit: publications exploring this line of research are already available: Münte et al 2008, Cohen et al 2009, Zaghloul et al 2009, Cohen et al 2008.
More and more, DBS is being applied to the human reward circuit to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression (see previous blog post). Specifically, the nucleus accumbens (ventral striatum) is being targeted. Dopamine release into the nucleus accumbens is the strongest reward-signal we know of; it is core to the generation of motivation and learning.
So, what will we see when we start recording from DBS electrodes placed in the human nucleus accumbens? I'll bet my boots that we'll be able to detect changes in dopamine release and reward-processing with MUCH higher precision than when we use brain scanners. Averaged over many trials and patients, recordings like that could allow us to quantify the reward value of things in the world, and relate the activity of the human reward circuit not just to sensation but also to cognition and behavior.
← Monkey reward circuit neurons respond to a liquid reward. How exactly would the human reward circuit respond to a liquid reward? Or an invitation to a BBQ? Or two political candidates? Or heroin? Or boredom? Or praise? Or coffee? Or any of the various reinforcers that shape our behaviour, thoughts and feelings? I think we're about to find out.
Edit: publications exploring this line of research are already available: Münte et al 2008, Cohen et al 2009, Zaghloul et al 2009, Cohen et al 2008.
I can has operant conditioning?
"The struggle for freedom and dignity has been formulated as a defense of autonomous man rather than as a revision of the contingencies of reinforcement under which people live. A technology of behavior is available which would more successfully reduce the aversive consequences of behavior, proximate or deferred, and maximize the achievements of which the human organism is capable, but the defenders of freedom oppose its use."
- B.F. Skinner (1971) Beyond Freedom and Dignity, p125
- B.F. Skinner (1971) Beyond Freedom and Dignity, p125
19 April 2009
April
Spending a few weeks in Sweden. It's sunny here, but cold. Glad to be here. Went to a seminar about intelligent, critical Christianity yesterday, which was really good. Reading Skinner's 'Beyond Freedom and Dignity', which is also good.
Had too much coffee while reading this morning (4 cups) and just went through a manic phase of cleaning the kitchen and installing some new software but now I'm rapidly running out of energy. Best get some good podcasts on the iPod and get out in the sun before I crash.
Had too much coffee while reading this morning (4 cups) and just went through a manic phase of cleaning the kitchen and installing some new software but now I'm rapidly running out of energy. Best get some good podcasts on the iPod and get out in the sun before I crash.
18 April 2009
15 April 2009
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