Perhaps the most important quality of civilization is the substitution of intelligent planning for natural chance. Today our lives are not regulated by hunting needs, darkness of night, or seasonal variations. We may request food by telephone, flip a switch for light, or adjust a dial to obtain a room temperature. At the same time that we have gained freedom from natural elements, we have become increasingly dependent on coordinated technical planning. The accomplishments in outer space travel are an outstanding example. Escape from gravity abolished man's historical bond to the earth; day and night rhythms were drastically changed; time and space took on new dimensions; the horizon vanished; the cardinal points lost meaning, and a totally new system of references and computations had to be created in order to navigate and survive orbiting around and beyond the earth. It is symbolic that man's new-found celestial freedom required the greatest imaginable social dependence. Every single bit of each space vehicle represented the combined thinking and material efforts of thousands of men. Even the air to be breathed inside the capsule had to be carefully calculated and stored.

Manipulation of natural elements for the benefit of mankind is usually accepted as highly desirable, and most of us are rather proud of the colossal engineering efforts involved in changing

245

246 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

the course of a river, joining oceans formerly separated by land, or reaching distant stars with our instruments. These wonderful realities are considered a logical consequence of our present cultural system, although they would have been impossible to materialize or even to conceive of several thousand years ago. Can we imagine the attitude of primitive man about tampering with the eternal stability of the rivers or about capturing the sparks of lightning with a metallic rod? The suggestion would have been rejected as foolish and impossible, if not sacrilegious. "Reaching for the moon" was the expression for striving for an unattainable goal, although that actual goal has now been realized.

We may wonder whether man's still ingrained conceptions about the untouchable self are not reminiscent of the ancient belief that it was completely beyond human power to alter omnipotent nature. We are at the beginning of a new ideological and technological revolution in which the objectives are not physical power and control of the environment, but direct intervention into the fate of man himself.

The fact that the human brain is learning to influence its own material and functional substratum should not be interpreted as a foolish attempt to modify "cosmic design," or to change "God's will," but simply as the appearance of a new mechanism determined by the normal evolution of natural chance. Human domination of ecological forces should not be taken as a victory against natural fate but as a result of it, in the same way that the flight of a bird against gravity is not in defiance of physical laws. Nature, not man, deserves credit for creating a thinking brain. Natural evolution provided the cerebral properties of originality, foresight, and awareness. The process was probably comparable to the needs of warm-blooded animals which required the development of a neuronal thermostat, located in the hypothalamus, in order to regulate complex vasomotor and metabolic mechanisms to keep body temperature within narrow limits. The newcomer in the series of warm mammals seems to be developing a novel and most useful homeostatic mechanism

NATURAL CAUSALITY AND INTELLIGENT PLANNING 247

which in the future will perhaps be referred to as the "psychostat," meaning the intelligent neuronal adaptation for the maintenance of mental stability in spite of changes in external and internal demands. Natural evolution should favor the development of this mechanism which certainly has great survival value in the present world of tensions and conflicts. Natural evolution is, however, too slow, and if we recognize the decisive importance of the new development, we may be able to facilitate the feedback of cognitive behavior upon its own material basis of cerebral physiology.

When atomic energy was discovered, its destructive capabilities were developed much faster than its constructive applications, and the blame for this tragedy must be placed on the lack of human reason—on the functional inadequacy of our little brains which have not yet learned to solve their behavioral conflicts reasonably. The danger of atomic misuse may, hopefully, be solved by new ideas produced by better brains to come, while the risks derived from behavioral control may be created and at the same time avoided by the same subject of inquiry, the mind, which contains within itself all the elements for search and for decision and cannot expect any external help. As Dobzhansky (65) has said, "In giving rise to man, the evolutionary process has, apparently for the first and only time in the history of the Cosmos, become conscious of itself. This opens at least a possibility that evolution may some day be directed by man, and that prevalence of the absurd may be cut down."

The phrase "control of human behavior" is emotionally loaded, in part because of its threat to the "inviolability of the ego" and in part because of unpleasant associations with dictatorships, brainwashing, and selfish exploitation of man. Well-known novels like Huxley's Brave New World (114), Orwell's 1984 (168), and Condon's The Manchurian Candidate (40) are exposes of Utopian societies with obedient, soma-drugged, satisfied individuals whose activities are planned by the master minds of the ruling council. These satires are meant to shock the reader, but other novels also based on cultural design and behavioral

248 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

behavioral engineering, such as Skinner's Walden Two (209), have more messianic tones. The problem of external controls was well expressed by Skinner (210) when he described

a world in which there is food, clothing, and shelter for all, where everyone chooses his own work and works on the average only 4 hours a day, where music and the arts flourish, where personal relationships develop under the most favorable circumstances, where education prepares every child for the social and intellectual life which lies before him, where—in short—people are truly happy, secure, productive, creative, and forward looking. What is wrong with it? Only one thing: someone "planned it that way."

The concern about external planning depends to a great extent on learned attitudes, and the circular problem is that arbiters of ethical values are so biased by ideas of the prevailing, self-perpetuating cultural system that they cannot objectively evaluate their own evaluations. To own slaves was considered a respectable manifestation of social status not too long ago. Inculcation of honesty, loyalty, bravery, and self-sacrifice is the custom in many cultures, but by adding obedience and mobilizing the population for aggressive action against other groups, all these excellent qualities are perverted.

The dangers inherent in the control of human behavior are recognized by Skinner as well as by most investigators, and the hope that the new power acquired by the behavioral sciences will be restricted to the scientists or to some benevolent elite is little supported by either recent or distant history. Faith in science has been shattered when the stupendous discoveries of physics have been applied to kill several hundred thousand human beings in a single blow, when teams of investigators have been applying their skills to find more efficient napalm oils to burn villages, when civilized countries are stockpiling deadly gases, germs, and megatons of lethal power, and when governmental elites are using computers and "think centers" to calculate a game of destruction and retaliation. Greater efficiency in behavioral control could be only a more subtle and dangerous

NATURAL CAUSALITY AND INTELLIGENT PLANNING 249

weapon. No wonder that Berkner (15) has posed the question "Is there intelligent life on earth?" while Cole (38) expressed universal concern by asking, "Can the world be saved?"

These very serious problems must be recognized and solutions must be found. Danger has never stopped progress; the risk is not in the acquisition of knowledge but in its improper use; notwithstanding problems and concerns, atomic investigations will continue their explosive development, and control of human behavior will advance rapidly in methodology and applicability. We must accept the reality that different degrees of behavioral control have been practiced since immemorial times, are widely used at present, and will expand in the future. Man is a social animal and interpersonal relations are a form of mutual control. The mother certainly teaches her baby. The policeman imposes order on city traffic. To discuss whether human behavior can or should be controlled is naive and misleading. We should discuss what kinds of controls are ethical, considering the efficiency and mechanisms of existing procedures and the desirable degree of these and other controls in the future.

Available techniques can be classified in two groups: (1) Use of chemical and physical agents to induce modifications in neurophysiological activity. This category includes psychoactive drugs and direct electrical manipulation of the brain. (2) Use of positive or negative social reinforcements, based on the sensory relations between the subject and his environment, mainly other human beings who are the suppliers of stimuli. This category includes subliminal stimulation, conditioning, social pressure, psychotherapy, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and brainwashing. In these situations the behavior of one individual is planned or at least purposefully influenced by another.

In the control of behavior through psychotherapy, the doctor uses his own experience and scientific knowledge in order to influence the reactions of the patient who has consented to the general procedure. In this situation, there is a communication of values and behavioral characteristics, and it has been pointed out that "whether or not the analyst is consciously tempted to

250 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

act as a teacher, model and ideal to his patients, he inevitably does so to a greater or lesser extent; and this is a central aspect of the psychoanalytic process" (152). Patients who improve after psychotherapy have often changed their moral values on sex, aggression, and authority to conform to those of the therapist, but there is much less modification in the patients who have not improved (189). The overwhelming experimental evidence shows that human behavior can be controlled by psychological means (131), and the new approach of physical manipulation of the brain is only one more aspect of possible behavioral control.

The widely accepted principle that "all men are born free and equal" is cherished as the backbone of democratic societies and the basis of human dignity. If we interpret the statement as an ideal for social organization or as a symbolic expression of human rights, the principle is certainly commendable. If we analyze its biological basis, however, we realize that freedom of the newborn is only wishful thinking, and that literal acceptance of this fallacy may cause frustrations and conflicts. Expecting freedom, we may be puzzled by the reality of biological determination and early imprinting compounded by the servitude to a mechanized and organized society. This dilemma would be eased if we realized that liberty is not a natural, inborn characteristic of human expression but a product of awareness and intelligent thinking which must be acquired by conscious individual and collective efforts. Civilization has accelerated the elaboration of human potential including the possibility for greater freedom, but its fulfillment is contingent on purposeful efforts to escape from the countless elements of behavioral determination.

Heredity is established by pure chance—not chosen by parents or by the individual—and this genetic determination represents the potential to be a genius or an idiot. Denying the existence of mental functions in the newborn, emphasizing the essentiality of extracerebral elements for the appearance of the mind, and accepting that the baby lacks the capacity to search

NATURAL CAUSALITY AND INTELLIGENT PLANNING 251

for and to choose the decisive initial inputs leads to the conclusion of the possibility and convenience of intelligent planning as superior to blind chance. The poet needs words—which he did not invent—to write a poem; the mason needs bricks, constructed by someone else, to build a house; the thinker needs ideas, provided by readings and experience, in order to develop new concepts; and the baby, who is the first state of poets, masons, and thinkers, has the absolute need of cultural inputs in order to become a man.

The "personal identity" of the newborn is a question of definition, because initially he has potentialities rather than realities. Being left- or right-handed, more or less excitable, possessing a white or black skin, and the faculty—or inability—to learn are genetically determined characteristics. After the baby is born, the choices are: who is going to provide the necessary information and training, what and how much will be provided, and the techniques to be used. The ideological vacuum of the newborn brain cannot be filled by autochthonous neuronal spikes but by experiences and cultural inputs. The unfortunate circumstance is that the baby, for whom the consequences of these choices are so important, is totally unable to participate in the discussion.

The elements which form the frame of reference for individual mental structure include, among others, language, knowledge, beliefs, and patterns of response, but the number of existing cultural elements is enormous and only a few are received by each person. This requires a process of selection which is influenced by (1) natural chance, represented, for example, by country of birth, social environment, and economic factors; (2) national organization which uses mass media to communicate facts, news, and ideology with a variable degree of bias (and which also controls the educational system and may deprive people of specific knowledge and experiences by means of social and political pressure, censorship, and repression); (3) family and friends, who represent the most important sources of information in early childhood; and (4) the individual himself,

252 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

who may choose cultural elements, but only after he has acquired the power of reason and choice, and within the limits of available information. This power will be considerably biased by the three previous groups of factors.

Let us accept that the structure of mental qualities and their behavioral manifestations depend on genetic, neurophysiological, and cultural factors which can be investigated, known, and modified by intelligent planning. Let us accept also that the necessary methodology is available or will soon be developed. The most important question then is how we shall use this power. How should the human mind be structured? Which mental qualities and behavioral responses should be favored or inhibited? Who will be the human artifact created by intelligent manipulation? As Rogers has asked, "Who will be controlled? Who will exercise control? What type of control will be exercised? Most important of all ... toward what end or what purpose, or in the pursuit of what value, will control be exercised?" (188).

Powerful cultural determination is already being imposed on the behavior of children and adults, but as history shows it has not been too successful in preventing or solving human conflicts. Our predicament is that the power to control behavior is progressing very rapidly in both knowledge and technology, while we still do not know in which direction to use it. Skinner, who is the main proponent of cultural design, has listed the specifications for a behavioral technology as follows: "Let men be happy, informed, skillful, well behaved, and productive" (210), but in a later publication (211) he has not been so definite about these goals; and the implicit assumption is that behavioral control will bring "a far better world for everyone."

The contention that an ideal society should be "well behaved" may be disputed by many and in any case requires a clarification of meaning. In some old plantations slaves behaved very well, worked hard, were submissive to their masters, and were probably happier than some of the free blacks in modern ghettos. In several dictatorial countries the general population is skillful,

NATURAL CAUSALITY AND INTELLIGENT PLANNING 253

productive, well behaved, and perhaps as happy as those in more democratic societies. It is doubtful, however, that slavery or dictatorship should be our models. To outline a formula for the future ideal man is not easy. This is partly due to the fact that if man is identified by his mental qualities, our difficulty is increased because we do not know these qualities well, and they are evolving entities with an unpredictable future. How would it have been possible 100 years ago to foresee the biological convenience of resisting radiation or gravitational forces? These concepts were beyond the thinking range of the epoch. How can we outline the mental requirements for a mankind in search of another planet to inhabit when the earth loses its warmth and can no longer support life? Our present problem is far from clear although it requires immediate action: How should we orient human behavior in the present and in the next few decades?

The confusion about behavioral goals contrasts sharply with the relative clarity of material needs. Food, clothing, and shelter may be accepted as the most basic requirements, to which we may add health, education, and leisure. The puzzling reality is that the excellent material accomplishment of our present civilization has not only failed to solve human conflicts and clashes but has increased their destructive efficiency, creating additional and unexpected problems such as alienation and ecological pollution without increasing human happiness. The new generations of affluent societies experience growing restlessness and escalating explosions of rebellion which may be interpreted as an anxious search for identity and purpose. The complaint is spiritual more than material, a rejection of the established order with its "false" values, without, however, reaching the creative crisis of a better cause. It is a wishful yearning for freedom while remaining chained to behavioral patterns of the group: contempt for television, automobiles, and detergents; contempt for affiliations with the church, state, or military. This attitude often leads the alienated to seek sex without love and the artificial paradise of mental distortion provided by drugs; to live aimlessly for today while feeling the emptiness of the future.

254 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

They search for the independent self without realizing its essential biological and ideological dependence.

Some of our present problems derive from the lack of balance between material and mental evolutions. We are civilized in our physical ecological accomplishments but barbaric in our psychological responses. Within some limits we can control atoms, trees, and animals, while we have not learned to control ourselves. New solutions are needed in order to civilize our psyche, consciously to organize our efforts to develop a future psychocivilized society.

Recognizing that we must do something in order to understand the human mind better and to improve the human condition is not very original. This idea was expressed before Platonic and Aristotelian times. What is surprising is the limited practicality of the solutions proposed in the past. Why after several thousand years of civilization are human beings continuing to torture and kill each other? Why do we agree in our efforts to understand and dominate natural forces, while we disagree on the organization of mankind? Why have some countries reached a considerable degree of physical comfort without enjoying a comparable degree of personal happiness?

One aspect of the problem is certainly that the many factors involved are not well known and may be in conflict. Another is that philosophy, sociology, and the behavioral sciences have been limited to the outside of organisms, ignoring the internal organization which is responsible for behavioral activity. The tremendous possibilities introduced by new methodologies will allow the exploration of the depth of functioning brains and the influencing of their physiological mechanisms. Knowledge acquired through this approach will permit a more realistic and precise understanding of the human mind and of its behavioral consequences, and it will also permit the introduction of a greater amount of awareness and intelligence in the determination of behavioral responses. This orientation should not be identified with authoritarian control. To the contrary, "awareness of our own needs and attitudes is our most effective instrument

NATURAL CAUSALITY AND INTELLIGENT PLANNING 255

for maintaining our own integrity and control over our own reactions" (187). Awareness is a major element in defense against external manipulation. "Throughout the course of his life ... an individual is an active participant in the creation of his own mind, the development of his own self, and more generally speaking, his own reality world" (28).

How much reason we use to influence our personal fate is up to us. Even the most deterministic doctrine must accept the role of individual intelligence as a feedback in the constellation of behavioral determinants. Planning the organization of mental functions in children—and in adults—may be oriented toward an increase in the awareness of the cultural elements and neurological mechanisms involved in decision-making. Increasing the participation of conscious evaluation diminishes the automatism of responses, increases responsibility, augments individual differentiation of reactivity, and permits enjoyment of a greater degree of freedom because the choices are more thoughtful and in accord with personal evaluation of the circumstances. One of the aims of the planners of psychocivilization should be to expose and avoid the psychological traps being built into our increasingly organized societies. We should try to avoid the present trend to dehumanize our behavior, in which social relations are effective but not affective. Services in hospitals, schools and shops are progressively automatized and depersonalized, so that now merchandise, information, words, and money may be exchanged between people without personal contact.

These problems must be identified and understood at their many sociological, psychological, and neurophysiological levels in order to make decisions about how to face them. The psychocivilized trend should avoid the inculcation of rigid patterns of response while favoring the power of reason through better knowledge of the intervening factors, including intracerebral functioning. To pontificate about moral codes or to impose restrictive measures may be less desirable—and less effective—than to clarify the reasons for individual choice. A very important decision to make is whether we are going to accept the

256 PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND

prevailing orientation of human life toward construction of more automobiles and designing of orbital bombs, or whether we would prefer to dedicate greater social effort to investigating and directing our own minds, which must create and interpret our circumstances.

The fundamental question of who is going to exert the power of behavioral control is easy to answer: everybody who is aware of the elements involved and understands how they act upon us will have that power. It is therefore essential that relevant information not be restricted to a small elite but be shared by all. In this way, solutions will be the product of collective thinking, and more importantly, the individual will be provided with a critical sense which will diminish his dependence on group decisions and allow the search for new personal solutions and therefore greater individual freedom.