Скачать или смотреть When Pigeons Were Trained to Guide Missiles | Project Pigeon Explained

In the summer of 1942, inside a secret laboratory hidden on the top floor of a General Mills flower mill, American scientists trained pigeons to guide bombs toward enemy warships. This was not science fiction. It was Project Pigeon — one of the strangest and most misunderstood weapons programs of World War II. Led by Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner, the project used operant conditioning to turn pigeons into living guidance systems capable of tracking moving targets with accuracy that early radar and radio-controlled weapons could not match.

Despite outperforming contemporary electronic systems and demonstrating complete resistance to radio jamming, Project Pigeon was ultimately cancelled — not because it failed, but because military leaders could not take the idea seriously. Later revived by the U.S. Navy as Project ORCON, the technology influenced early touchscreen interfaces and modern behavioral science. This video explores how the program worked, why it was rejected, how Britain successfully used pigeons in wartime, and what Project Pigeon reveals about the psychology of innovation, authority, and technological acceptance.