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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Memes are messages that are independent of what other element?
(a) Of the people who propagate them.
(b) Of contradicting information.
(c) Of new messages.
(d) Of outside influence.

2. Where is DNA found?
(a) In newly forming cells.
(b) Within the cells of every human being.
(c) In the cells of the nervous system.
(d) Within the cells of every living thing.

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 developed to duplicate.
(c) It was a code and it could be deciphered mathematically.
(d) It was dynamic and ever-changing.

4. What does the word "cybernetics" mean?
(a) The study of robotics.
(b) The same as computer science.
(c) The study of the relationship between man and machine.
(d) The study of Internet crime.

5. What does the author compare the famous library to?
(a) The Encyclopedia Brittanica.
(b) Quantum data storage.
(c) The online encyclopedia Wikipedia.
(d) Search engines.

6. The existence of what entity as a basic element of genetics had been theorized before the mechanics of genetic reproduction was fully understood?
(a) The Genome.
(b) A gene.
(c) RNA.
(d) DNA.

7. How are memes replicated?
(a) Through imitation.
(b) Through the maturation process.
(c) Through cloning.
(d) In response to disease.

8. How did Gregory Chaitin define random numbers?
(a) As numbers that could not be identified.
(b) As numbers that could not be calculated.
(c) As numbers that could not be computed.
(d) As numbers that could not be defined.

9. What library once helped writing from all over the known world?
(a) The famous library in Sparta.
(b) The famous library at Alexandria.
(c) The famous library of the Roman Empire.
(d) The famous library at Oxford.

10. What did Seth Lloyd, a quantum engineer at MIT, base his estimates on the universe on?
(a) The speed of light.
(b) The speed of light and the age of the universe.
(c) The age of the universe.
(d) The volume and capacity of the universe.

11. What does the word "entropy" describe in relationship to thermodynamics?
(a) The efficiency of a system.
(b) The functionality of a system.
(c) The availability of energy in a system.
(d) The temperature of a system.

12. What happened to the library that once held all known information?
(a) It was destroyed when Sparta burned.
(b) It was abandoned at Oxford when it was felt that there was too much information to store.
(c) It was burned when Alexandria was conquered.
(d) It was buried during an eruption of Etna.

13. What two disciplines of science were forced together by DNA?
(a) Cellular and anatomical biologies.
(b) Molecular and evolutionary biologies.
(c) Medical research and genetics.
(d) Biology and physics.

14. Chaotic looking numbers may have simplistic algorithms but why are many difficult to determine?
(a) Because they are not computable.
(b) The number is too complex.
(c) The number is too difficult to compress through computation.
(d) It is impossible to work back from the number to find them.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What comment did IBM researcher Charles Bennet make about the amount of information in a message?

2. Why is modern society in information overload?

3. Why is the belief in God an enduring one?

4. How does Wikipedia differ from the Encyclopedia Britannica?

5. What type of information is contained in DNA?

(see the answer keys)

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