The real question is not whether machines think but whether people do.

Skinner makes the remark while discussing why people become uneasy when machines appear to perform complex cognitive-like functions (e.g., pattern recognition, categorization, problem-solving). He argues that the puzzlement attributed to “thinking machines” is not fundamentally different from the puzzlement surrounding human thinking.

The line reframes the debate about artificial intelligence: instead of treating machine “thought” as uniquely mysterious, it challenges whether we have a clear, non-mystical account of what it means for humans to think. It implies that the same explanatory standards should apply to both humans and machines.

But the real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.