Wednesday, October 23 - PM Advanced/Fluency

We began with a Halloween-inspired opening discussion involving a thought experiment of a killer snail. Imagine someone showed you a briefcase with a million dollars inside and said, “This is yours… under one condition. If you take this money, a killer snail will be dropped on the globe somewhere and will pursue you for the rest of your life. It will never stop moving. If it touches you, you instantly die.” We shared our opinions: would we take the money? Most students in the class said no.

We then practiced our SLO. I played recordings of me speaking through a voice-changer app. Students pretended that they were listening to an automated phone service and had to select the correct number. 

We then read an article I wrote (that I have shared with other classes) on future bias. Why are we biased toward the future? Why would we rather have had a horrifically painful experience in the past rather than a more moderately painful experience in the future? Why do we prioritize our future self over our past self?

We had a lively and fun discussion on this issue.