Software Engineers/Human Engineers

[Paul Mackin]

Have been reading Rebecca Lemov's _World as Laboratory _.

Pynchon's mad Pavlovians have nothing on Lemov's Behavioralists and  
Human Engineers.  Pynchon writes fiction.  Lemov's  book is  
nonfiction, so at least some of it stands a chance of being true.

Interesting read.  Well researched but how reliable her  
interpretations are I'm not qualified to say. My reaction--could  
things have really been that whacky? She makes her biases clear  
(against), which many readers will of course share.

Along the way she is developing a somewhat problematic point.  
Although much of the psychological and socialogical work the  
Behavioralists attempted reads today like naive nonsense,   
nevertheless (she contends) it has had a profound influence on our  
modern existence


P