

All Souls: The toughest test you’ll ever take - frisco
http://mssv.net/2007/08/24/all-souls-the-toughest-test-youll-ever-take/

======
biohacker42
My answers:

 _Can terrorism be justified?_

Sure, it's worked many times in history. Just the first example i can think
of: Beirut barracks bombing.

It targeted military personnel, I believe the victims were overwhelmingly
professional soldiers, and it worked. The international force pulled out of
Lebanon.

 _Would you have burned Franz Kafka’s manuscripts, as he requested in his
will?_

Yes, we have legal precedent that authors have an automatic copyright to their
works, and they can choose to not publish.

 _If the Greeks invented democracy, what is it?_

Working on the premise that they invented it, then it is easily and accurately
described as representative democracy.

 _Is Amazon.com good for literature?_

Yes, the ability to quickly and easily search a HUGE library like Amazon can
not be matched by a brick and mortar.

 _Is China overrated?_

It depends on your rating. In the short therm you can make an excellent case
for overvalued stocks.

In the long term, it easy to argue that for most of history China was the most
powerful and advanced nation on Earth.

It declined compared to the rest of the world only when it cuts itself off
from the rest of the world.

Or put more succinctly, humans are the cause of innovation and wealth. A
region which has the most humans with the most freedoms will out compete
regions with _significantly_ less of either people or freedoms.

It is a very reasonable assumption that the future will look much like the
past and China will be global super power.

 _What can we learn from Las Vegas?_

Gambling is profitable and popular and does not in and of itself destroy
civilization.

 _Is Dark Energy more interesting than Dark Matter?_

Dark matter is theorized to be non electromagnetic matter. Dark energy is
supposedly accelerating the expansion of the universe. Interesting is an ill
defined term. Dark Energy is more interesting to me personally, by my own
definition of "interesting."

 _Whither social democracy after Tony Blair?_

No.

 _Can animals think?_

Yes.

 _Why was resistance to the Mongols so seldom successful?_

Nomads like the Mongols and the Huns live on land that can not support crops
humans can survive on.

But it can support animals which can then support humans. This leads to lower
population density but a lot more horses per human.

Following pasture also necessities a nomadic lifestyle, thus making every
member of society an excellent rider.

Populations on better land can achieve higher population densities with fewer
animals. Thus animals become a luxury.

Cavalry is militarily superior to armed peasants. Because the Eurasian steppe
is HUGE, the lower population density of nomads still leads to very large
numbers of nomads.

When these nomads move, like the Huns or the Mongols, they essentially
practice asymmetrical warfare against non nomad populations.

Calvary vs peasants, much like US military hardware vs Iraqi military
hardware, with similar results.

 _Write on any one of the following: games, food, body parts_

I like food.

 _Water_

wet.

I have a funny, mind I can literally feel ill when I am forced to answer
stupid questions like _Water?_ Clearly I am not made for the All Souls club.

------
thomasmallen
"Now, if you look closely, inside this ivory tower you can make out an even
smaller tower made of far choicer ivory."

~~~
puzzle-out
I spent six years at another Oxford college. All Souls is an odd institution,
very closed to the outside, and I was never blown away by any of its fellows.
From people I know who've taken the test, apparently the dinner at the end is
the most crucial part, where they basically decide whether they want to
socialise with you for the next six years.

~~~
biohacker42
If the like you personally or not is the crucial factor?

<sarcasm>I am shocked, shocked I tell you!</sarcasm>

------
cperciva
Or, for scientists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers, the
toughest test you _won't_ ever take -- since the subject matter of the prize
examination is limited to Law, History, English, Greats, and PPE.

------
jwb119
i'm probably in the minority here, but i think constructing a test that
rewards a broad but intensive base of knowledge and the ability to create a
cohesive argument in a short amount of time should be applauded.

at the very least, hackers should appreciate the fact that it is quite
contrarian.

~~~
daniel-cussen
Yeah. Makes the world a better place.

------
chris11
I still think that the Putnam is tougher. The average score for test takers
has been 1/120 in some years. And in the seventy years the test has been going
on, there has only been three perfect scores.

~~~
beza1e1
What is this Putnam test?

~~~
chris11
The Putnam competition is a 6 hour, 12 question proof-based math test. Math
majors, engineers, computer scientists, and physics majors are the ones who
usually take it. The person with the highest score gets a scholarship to
Harvard for graduate study in mathematics that covers tuition plus 12k.
Archives:[http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex....](http://www.unl.edu/amc/a-activities/a7-problems/putnamindex.shtml)

Sample question: A1. Basketball star Shanille O'Keal's team statistician keeps
track of the number, S(N), of successful free throws she has made in her first
N attempts of the season. Early in the season, S(N) was less than 80% of N,
but by the end of the season, S(N) was more than 80% of N. Was there
necessarily a moment in between when S(N) was exactly 80% of N? (with proof)
168 out of the 196 top scorers got at least an 8/10 on this, so it was a
relatively easy question for that year.

------
arockwell
Maybe I'm being overly cynical, but did anyone else think that all this test
will find is who is the best bullshit artist?

~~~
gaius
Which means you could hack it like the Social Text fiasco.

~~~
arockwell
What's the Social Text fiasco?

~~~
gaius
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair>

------
kurtosis
I recall somewhere seeing very similar types of very general questions on an
exam to enter the chinese civil service.

