- Can a robot have a gender?
Defend the indefensible.
And simply the word water.
These are all past questions
from what is often called the hardest exam in the world.
Now truly we know that for each of us,
the hardest exam in the world
is the one we haven't studied for.
But this exam does seem pretty fascinating.
It is the University of Oxford All Souls College
Examination Fellowship.
All Souls is a college at Oxford
and it's very exclusive.
If you pass this exam,
you get an all expenses paid fellowship
to live there for seven years,
and focus on your graduate studies and academic work.
The website says that you get seven years
in ideal research conditions,
in regular contact with leading scholars in your field,
and free from the many pressures, financial or otherwise,
that can afflict graduate students.
In seven years, you might be able to complete a doctorate,
turn it into a book, and then move on to a new project.
Now doesn't that sound nice?
But every year, only one or two students pass this exam,
so perhaps, don't get your expectations up too high.
It's a hard exam,
because there are no right or wrong answers,
and the questions are somewhat abstract,
which makes it the kind of thing
that's difficult to study for.
The exam consists of writing 12 essays
over four papers, taken over two days.
There are two general papers,
and then you get a choice from law,
history, philosophy, politics, economics,
English literature, and classics.
It's not really one for the scientists,
but let's have a look at some of the past questions.
Let's take a look at the general paper.
Is there something to be said for boredom?
Should historical fiction keep to the facts?
And are some languages more beautiful than others?
There are a lot of past questions to go through,
but I'll point out some of the ones
that I found the most fascinating,
or that really made me think.
Number eight, does guilt promote creativity?
And number 10, we see a quote from Daniel Kahneman.
"What would I eliminate if I had a magic wand?
Overconfidence."
Discuss.
A lot of the question, though,
go towards being a lot more controversial,
or even political.
There are questions in here about vaccine passports,
and the gig economy.
Probably issues that are topical,
and being discussed in the media around the time
that the exam is taking place.
We've got, should genetic enhancement
of intelligence be explored?
And, defend the indefensible.
Some questions, then,
would be easier to study for than others.
Those ones about current issues,
it would certainly help to be on top
of what's being printed in newspapers,
and online journalism, things like that.
But some of these more theoretical or abstract questions,
perhaps you just have to hope
that it's something you've thought about before.
And perhaps that's an appropriate strategy,
to pick questions you have already thought about.
Because some of them, for example, number 29,
are cryptocurrencies the future?
It's plausible you will have seen
already a bunch of YouTube videos about that or otherwise.
But questions like 22, can a robot have a gender?
Did make me stop and think about something
that I hadn't really thought too much about before.
The exam is designed to find really smart people,
and I guess one kind of smart person
does already in their daily life
talk about and think about a lot of these questions.
Should any new science be published behind paywalls?
Or, how can policy combat algorithmic discrimination?
Being the kind of engaged member of society
that enjoys a bit of intellectual challenge,
perhaps you already arrive at the exam
with thoughts, or references, quotes,
relating to some of these arguments.
How will historians study the internet age?
Or, number 14, write the history of a color.
This one seemed pretty fascinating.
So I had to think about how I might answer it,
even though I don't have a lot of experience with essays,
especially at this level.
A visit to the Wikipedia page for the color red
provides plenty of interesting tangents
that you might want to pursue.
Perhaps I would talk about
how it was one of the first colors ever made,
and used in prehistoric art.
That it was used in war and pottery,
and eventually became a political color.
That since red is the color of blood,
it has been historically associated with sacrifice,
danger, courage.
But also passion, anger, and love.
If I was worldly and prepared,
I would perhaps show up with some names of famous paintings
that feature the color red.
And talk about how color itself
is a way that people can be connected throughout history.
Even though perhaps not everyone
experiences color in the same way.
Since I'm not too well-versed
in the more political questions
or ones from other areas of the humanities,
I'll point out some of the more sciency questions,
because at least they are ones
that I have considered before.
Number 21, is the Turing Test a reasonable criterion
for the achievement of general AI?
And keep in mind this isn't really an exam
for the scientists and mathematicians,
unless you also happen to be an expert
in one of the humanities subjects.
So answering these questions
will have to come from quite a philosophical
and general point of view,
rather than just presenting some scientific information.
This question here sort of surprised me.
Should we bring back woolly mammoths from the dead?
Because that is a question that I've seen on essays
all the way back to high school biology.
So I guess you're having to present
a much more advanced and nuanced answer here.
We have here a quote from Carl Sagan.
"We live in a society exquisitely dependent
on science and technology,
in which hardly anyone knows anything
about science and technology."
Does this matter?
And that seems like rather a nice question,
because instead of just complaining
that people don't know enough about science,
you're actually having to discuss why you think they should,
or perhaps why they shouldn't have to.
Would it matter if newspapers ceased to be printed?
Are streaming services good for music?
And which concept is more fundamental, shape or color?
Is artificial intelligence already beyond our control?
And I'll be paging John Green to answer,
is the Anthropocene a useful concept?
We then have, should beauty be taxed?
Should ugliness be compensated?
And in what sense are civil servants servants?
Think about whether you could really write
an entire essay about, is ignorance bliss,
or defend tweeting,
Are there too many books?
This one probably I've thought about the most.
Just sitting in a library,
and looking at all the ones on the shelf
that hardly ever get read,
and thinking about the prospect
that every day, more books are being published.
But I'm sure there's a way to argue
that we benefit from new and outdated knowledge
all the time,
and if we just kept all the books that we already have,
that wouldn't be great either.
One for the gamers in the house, we have,
would you rather be a vampire or a zombie?
Is it possible to imagine a society without law?
And then a nice one here, number 17.
Does it matter if we are alone in the universe?
A scientist answering this
might just present things like the Fermi paradox,
and the Drake equation,
or probabilities that we are
or aren't alone in the universe,
and show some of the ways that we're looking for life,
and the probability of finding bacteria here or there.
But this question ask, does it matter?
Perhaps you could present the Arthur C. Clarke quote that,
"Two possibilities exist.
Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not.
Both are equally terrifying."
And you could write about the history and impact
of merely thinking about this question.
How it has impacted the way
that humans think about themselves,
and their place on the Earth.
Perhaps start with how our mindsets had to change
when we began to accept the heliocentric model
that the sun is at the center of the solar system,
rather than the Earth.
That we first had to think that,
everything does not revolve around us.
Then extend that as to as we started to discover exoplanets.
And there's a Stephen Hawking quote that says that,
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys
on a minor planet of a very average star."
So we begin to have to think about
the fact that on some of these other planets,
that it had similar conditions perhaps to Earth,
that there might be similar kinds of life.
But then there's the fact that
we haven't found any of it yet,
so you can still talk about the Fermi paradox,
and how weird that is.
And perhaps how it makes us appreciate the rarity,
or how precious life is.
Then, if this was my essay,
perhaps talking a little bit about the growing trend
of space pessimism.
In space movies a lot of the time,
space is presented as a lonely space
that the characters often experience tragedies in,
and it's not until they return home to Earth
to their families and loved ones
that things tend to come full circle.
So does it matter if we are alone in the universe?
Well maybe it does,
because the question itself sort of frames
how we think about exploring space.
Number 24 down here is,
should we even try to understand how the brain works?
And I thought that seemed like an obvious answer
that we should.
But perhaps trying to think of ways to answer this,
and present arguments why we shouldn't
would actually be a really interesting conversation.
Then as a fitting final question on this paper,
number 25 asked,
are there any unanswerable questions?
Before we take a look at some of the other papers,
let's take a look at the assessment criteria
for these essays.
One is the engagement,
including the range of issues addressed,
the depth and sophistication of comprehension,
and directness of answering the question.
You also need to present a coherent argument
that has clarity and power,
is intellectual and original.
You need to provide information,
such as knowledge of the original sources,
range, depth, and detail of evidence cited,
and accuracy of your information.
It should be organized,
and presented well with clarity and coherence.
Correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
And whoever is reading your answer
has to be able to see in you
potential for future intellectual development.
There's also an interesting note here
about a dress code for the exam.
Men are expected to wear a suit, tie, and gown,
and women should wear equivalent attire.
I'm not sure if this is normal for all exams at Oxford,
but that sounds like one of the fanciest looking exams
that I've heard of.
If you do well on the exam, you might be shortlisted,
and invited back to answer questions
about the answers you wrote.
And this will be in front of all the fellows
that are in the school.
So there might be up to 80 people
watching you answer those questions.
We can take a little look at the philosophy questions,
but I'm guessing they're gonna be pretty difficult.
Here we go.
Number five, a person is a person through a person.
Discuss.
Or can we talk, or think about everything that exists?
On the next page we have, could rocks be conscious?
And with that, I might put away the philosophy paper,
and take a look at another one, English literature.
This one I wouldn't really stand a chance on
unless I did some serious study and research,
or basically took a degree in English literature,
because I don't really know most of the references
that they're talking about here.
But in a way, it makes me want to study English literature,
because like a lot of the questions
on the other papers we looked at,
these just seem really interesting.
There's this question here, number 17.
"Byron's romanticism, it must be confessed,
was only half sincere."
A quote apparently by Bertrand Russell.
And it's about Lord Byron, Ada Lovelace's father.
Write about sincerity or insincerity
in Romantic-period poetry.
Or what was transcendental about Transcendentalism?
That's probably enough for now.
There was one other category of questions
that has since been discontinued,
and those were essays where only one word
was given as a prompt.
So water, originality, novelty, miracles.
Those are all previous questions.
It certainly is a very fascinating exam.
And even if you have no intention
of ever sitting it yourself,
at least some of these questions
would make for interesting topics of discussion or debate.
Hopefully not too heated, though.
Thanks for watching this video,
and thanks to my Patreon supporters
who make my content possible.
A special shout out to today's patron cat of the day,
Ashley.
(soft music)