If you can place any credibility in Skinner and his ilk, so are we. Many human biological functions (such as blood sugar/insulin curves) are classic problems in feedback control systems text books.
Certain parts of that are debatable. Recalling that the story is Science fiction, remember that Sharon rebelled against programming when she took Helo in different directions than she was instructed to do on Caprica.
"Certain parts of that are debatable. Recalling that the story is Science fiction, remember that Sharon rebelled against programming when she took Helo in different directions than she was instructed to do on Caprica."
But she still forgot to tell that Brother Nevil was a cylon.
Normal Humans are not a blank slate. They come with the capacity to feel empathy, feel guilt when they wrong others, and have a visceral negative response to things they think are unfair. See the two articles on psychopaths that I listed above as well as this article which talks about why "Scientists say morality may be hardwired into our brains by evolution".
In short, if you remove the emotional response that people have toward certain moral decisions, you don't get humane decisions. You get ruthlessly efficient ones. Remove empathy and a conscience and you get decisions based on self-interest without regard for others. So unless you hardwire your machines with a consience (e.g., Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics), empathy, and a visceral sense of fairness, you won't get humane behavior. You'll get ruthlessly efficient and selfish behavior. And that's exactly how the writers are portraying the Cylons in most cases.