The Pugnacious Pigeons
Psychologist B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) became famous for his studies of human behavior, but
not many people know about one of his more bizarre achievements. During World War II, he
designed a pigeon-guided missile. Honestly. Skinner believed that voluntary (or “operant”)
behavior can be modified through conditioning as an organism interacts with its environment. In
1940, he put that principle to work, teaching pigeons to steer a missile by rewarding the birds with
grain when they performed the desired response. He developed a guidance system that allowed
a harnessed pigeon to see a simulated target on a glass screen. By pecking the screen, the bird
controlled the mechanism that kept the missile on track. If the target started to drift off the screen,
the pigeon pecked at the image to bring it back to the center, since that was what released the
grain. Skinner proved that pigeons could accurately guide a missile, although when he
demonstrated the technique to government scientists they laughed at him. Skinner’s success in
training pigeons advanced his ideas about operant conditioning, a method of altering human
behavior through reinforcement that has had enormous impact on education, workplace training,
and mental health therapy.
Both Hands in the Till
State legislator and ward boss George Washington Plunkitt (1842–1924) wasn’t your average
politician. Oh, he was just as scheming and avaricious as the next officeholder, but unlike most of
the prevaricating polecats with the audacity to call themselves public servants, Plunkitt didn’t hide
his malfeasance. A leader in the legendary Tammany Hall political machine, which had a lock on
New York City’s government from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, Plunkitt made a fortune by
capitalizing on insider knowledge about public works projects. He called such profits “honest
graft,” blithely excusing his corruption with the immortal phrase, “I seen my opportunities and I
took ’em.” Machines like Tammany Hall once existed in nearly every big city in America. They
were usually run on the principle that government exists primarily to fatten the bank accounts of
the victors and their pals—the familiar “spoils system,” with its flagrant patronage appointments
and shadowy backroom deals. However, when it came to whitewashing their dishonesty, few of
the old political bosses could match G. W. Plunkitt, a man who thought that abusing a position of
trust was an admirable display of foresight. Remind you of anyone?
