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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What was Rolf Landauer's opinion of John von Neumann's theory on the energy cost of information?
(a) That it was incomplete.
(b) That it was incorrect.
(c) That it needed to be expanded.
(d) That it was accurate.

2. What are memes?
(a) Chromosomal genes.
(b) Bits of information.
(c) Self-cloning genes.
(d) Repressive genes.

3. What did cosmologist George Gamow immediately recognize about DNA as a code and proposed that it could be deciphered mathematically?
(a) It was a code and it could be cloned.
(b) It was a code and it could be deciphered mathematically.
(c) It was dynamic and ever-changing.
(d) It was a code and it could be developed to duplicate.

4. What results when a closed system's temperature evens out?
(a) No work could be done.
(b) There is no change.
(c) The system fails.
(d) More work can be accomplished.

5. It had long been noted that physical traits were inheritable and that they had something to do with what other human element?
(a) Amino acids.
(b) Chromosomes.
(c) Genes.
(d) DNA.

6. What can a computable number be compressed into?
(a) 0s and 1s.
(b) An algorithm.
(c) A byte.
(d) A standard calculation.

7. Shannon used the term entropy to have what meaning in reference to a message?
(a) Uncertainty.
(b) Certainty.
(c) Relevance.
(d) Importance.

8. Schrodinger and others theorized that genes had what role in life?
(a) They are a kind of code for constructing an organism.
(b) They are a kind of code for constructing an human cells.
(c) They are a kind of code for identifying an organism.
(d) They are a kind of marker for cell multification.

9. What is the modern meaning of "entropy"? "Entropy was not a kind of energy or an amount of energy," Gleick writes (p. 271). It was instead an abstract measurement of the unavailability of energy.
(a) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of cold.
(b) An abstract measurement of the unavailability of energy.
(c) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of heat.
(d) an abstract measurement of the unavailability of capacity.

10. How do scientists categorize catchphrases like "Survival of the fittest" and "Read my lips"?
(a) As memories.
(b) As bytes.
(c) As memes.
(d) As bits.

11. What does a closed system made up of a hot part and a cold part attain as the heat passes from the hot part to the cold part?
(a) Neutrality.
(b) 32 degrees F.
(c) Equilibrium.
(d) Controlled environment.

12. What was one of the innovative concepts that Dawkins proposed in "The Selfish Gene"?
(a) The genome.
(b) The repressive gene.
(c) The extra gene.
(d) A meme.

13. Why do scientists view quantum particles in terms of probability?
(a) The exact properties of quantum particles are dynamic.
(b) The exact properties of quantum particles are not stable.
(c) The exact properties of quantum particles change.
(d) The exact properties of quantum particles are unknown.

14. What does Gleick compare the "Library of Babel" to?
(a) Search engines.
(b) Quantum consciousness.
(c) The M-Theory.
(d) The Internet.

15. How did Landauer disprove von Neumann's theory on the energy cost of information?
(a) Flipping a bit from one state to another did not change entropy..
(b) Through extensive experiments.
(c) He was supported by others who agreed with him.
(d) There was no lost of vitality.

Short Answer Questions

1. Why are people able to recall the name of a tune?

2. The elements of DNA come in predictable proportions of what shape?

3. A psychologist named George Miller noticed that people seem to be able to easily remember up to how many items at a time?

4. Why is the randomness of numbers difficult to define?

5. At an exclusive meeting in New York City, Shannon commented that the English language had what characteristic?

(see the answer keys)

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