Mental Models Change Slowly

This applies just as well to people who are learning from us about transhuman future, as to students in college classrooms.

How can we stimulate students to build new models, to engage in what some call "deep" learning as opposed to "surface" learning in which they merely remember something long enough to pass the examination? Our subjects generally believe that to accomplish that feat, learners must

1. face a situation in which their mental model will not work (that is, will nor help them explain or do something);
2. care that it does not work strongly enough to stop and grapple with the issue at hand; and
3. be able to handle the emotional trauma that sometimes accompanies challenges to longstanding beliefs.

from What the Best College Teachers Do (page 25-26)

As applies to explaining H+

Mental models:

• Change is linear or non-existent
  • Corrolary: everything will stay largly as it is today
• Being human is important (with all the limitations attached)
• Medium-term future is irrelevant (personally and otherwise)

1. Have people face accelerating change.
2. Show the failure of not looking into the future
3. Show them great problems and missed opportunities
4. Don't make it too painful