. . . [T]he idea of craftsmanship is not simply nostalgic. . . . Crafts require distinct skills, an all-round approach to work that involves the whole product, rather than individual parts, and an attitude that necessitates devotion to the job and a focus on the communal interest. The concept of craft emphasises the human touch and individual judgment. Essentially, the crafts concept seems to run against the preponderant ethos of management studies which, as the academics note, have long prioritised efficiency and consistency. . . . Craft skills were portrayed as being primitive and traditionalist.
The contrast between artisanship and efficiency first came to the fore in the 19th century when British manufacturers suddenly faced competition from across the Atlantic as firms developed the “American system” using standardised parts. . . . the worldwide success of the Singer sewing machine showed the potential of a mass-produced device. This process created its own reaction, first in the form of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19th century, and then again in the “small is beautiful” movement of the 1970s. A third crafts movement is emerging as people become aware of the environmental impact of conventional industry.
There are two potential markets for those who practise crafts. The first stems from the existence of consumers who are willing to pay a premium price for goods that are deemed to be of extra quality. . . . The second market lies in those consumers who wish to use their purchases to support local workers, or to reduce their environmental impact by taking goods to craftspeople to be mended, or recycled.
For workers, the appeal of craftsmanship is that it allows them the autonomy to make creative choices, and thus makes a job far more satisfying. In that sense, it could offer hope for the overall labour market. Let the machines automate dull and repetitive tasks and let workers focus purely on their skills, judgment and imagination. As a current example, the academics cite the “agile” manifesto in the software sector, an industry at the heart of technological change. The pioneers behind the original agile manifesto promised to prioritise “individuals and interactions over processes and tools”. By bringing together experts from different teams, agile working is designed to improve creativity.
But the broader question is whether crafts can create a lot more jobs than they do today. Demand for crafted products may rise but will it be easy to retrain workers in sectors that might get automated (such as truck drivers) to take advantage? In a world where products and services often have to pass through regulatory hoops, large companies will usually have the advantage.
History also suggests that the link between crafts and creativity is not automatic. Medieval craft guilds were monopolies which resisted new entrants. They were also highly hierarchical with young men required to spend long periods as apprentices and journeymen before they could set up on their own; by that time the innovative spirit may have been knocked out of them. Craft workers can thrive in the modern era, but only if they don’t get too organised.
Question: The author questions the ability of crafts to create substantial employment opportunities presently because:
**Options:**
- 1) The low scale of crafts production will not be able to absorb the mass of redundant labour.
- 2) Crafts guilds tend to resist new entrants and are unlikely to accept large numbers of trainees.
- 3) Regulatory requirements could make it difficult for small crafts outfits to compete.
- 4) Workers made redundant by automation are unlikely to opt for crafts-related work.
Explanation:
The passage discusses the challenges faced by crafts in creating employment. One significant challenge highlighted is that “products and services often have to pass through regulatory hoops,” which tend to favor large companies over small crafts businesses. This regulatory disadvantage could hinder employment growth in the crafts sector.
Analysis of Options:
- Option 1: Incorrect. While the passage mentions demand, it does not directly state that low-scale production is the main limitation for employment opportunities.
- Option 2: Incorrect. The passage refers to historical guilds resisting new entrants, but this is not presented as a current limitation for crafts employment.
- Option 3: Correct. The regulatory hurdles mentioned in the passage favor large companies and make it difficult for small crafts businesses to thrive, which directly impacts employment potential.
- Option 4: Incorrect. While the passage questions retraining feasibility, it does not suggest that workers are unlikely to opt for crafts-related work.
Craftsmanship and Its Revival
“. . . [T]he idea of craftsmanship is not simply nostalgic. . . . Crafts require distinct skills, an all-round approach to work that involves the whole product, rather than individual parts, and an attitude that necessitates devotion to the job and a focus on the communal interest. The concept of craft emphasises the human touch and individual judgment.
There are two potential markets for those who practise crafts. The first stems from the existence of consumers who are willing to pay a premium price for goods that are deemed to be of extra quality. . . . The second market lies in those consumers who wish to use their purchases to support local workers, or to reduce their environmental impact by taking goods to craftspeople to be mended, or recycled.
A third crafts movement is emerging as people become aware of the environmental impact of conventional industry.”
Question:
The most recent revival in interest in the crafts is a result of all of the following EXCEPT:
**Options:**
- 1) A niche market for discerning buyers of quality products.
- 2) Support for individual creations as opposed to mass-produced objects.
- 3) A greater interest in buying locally produced goods.
- 4) Concerns about the environmental impact of mass production.
Explanation:
The passage outlines three factors contributing to the renewed interest in crafts:
- Niche markets for high-quality goods: Buyers willing to pay a premium price for quality products.
- Support for local production and recycling: Consumers who prioritize local workers and sustainability.
- Environmental sustainability: Concerns about the negative impact of mass production.
Option 2, “Support for individual creations as opposed to mass-produced objects,” is not explicitly mentioned as a reason for the recent revival in crafts. The passage focuses on local goods, quality, and environmental concerns but does not highlight individuality as a key driver.
Passage-Based Question: Shiller and Behavioral Economics
“Above all, we need politics and institutions. Shiller [the Nobel prize winning economist] connects perceptions of narratives to changes in behavior and thence to social outcomes. He completes a circle that was key to behavioral economics and brings in storytelling to make sense of how perceptions get framed. This cycle (perception to behavior to society) was once mediated or dominated by institutions: the political parties, lobby groups, and media organizations that played a vital role in legitimating, representing, and excluding interests. Yet institutions have been stripped from Shiller’s account, to reveal a bare dynamic of emotions and economics, without the intermediating place of politics.”
Question:
Q: The author’s critique of Shiller’s contribution to behavioural economics lies in his:
- Ignoring the marginal role that media and politics play in influencing people’s behaviour.
- Denigrating the role of institutions while creating a link between behavioural economics and perceptions.
- Relying excessively on storytelling as the main influence on the formation of perceptions.
- Linking emotions and rational behaviour without considering the mediation of social institutions.
Analysis:
The author discusses Shiller’s work in behavioral economics, particularly his emphasis on the role of narratives in shaping perceptions and their impact on behavior and societal outcomes. However, the critique lies in Shiller’s omission of the significant mediating role played by institutions such as political parties, lobby groups, and media organizations in framing and legitimating perceptions.
Evaluation of Options:
- Option 1: Incorrect. The author does not suggest that media and politics play a marginal role; instead, the critique is about Shiller omitting their significant mediating influence.
- Option 2: Incorrect. The author does not accuse Shiller of denigrating institutions but criticizes him for omitting their role in connecting perceptions and behaviors.
- Option 3: Incorrect. The critique is not about Shiller over-relying on storytelling but about ignoring the institutional frameworks that mediate perceptions and behaviors.
- Option 4: Correct. The author explicitly points out that Shiller’s work focuses on emotions and economics while neglecting the mediating role of social and political institutions.
Passage-Based Question: Homo Economicus
“For generations, economists have presumed that people have interests—’preferences,’ in the neoclassical argot—that get revealed in the course of peoples’ choices. Interests come before actions and determine them. If you are hungry, you buy lunch; if you are cold, you get a sweater. If you only have so much money and can’t afford to deal with both your growling stomach and your shivering, which need you choose to meet using your scarce savings reveals your preference.”
Question:
Q: We can infer from the passage that the term *‘homo economicus’* refers to someone who:
- Maximises their opportunities based on nonmarket choices.
- Is not influenced by the preferences and choices of others.
- Makes rational decisions based on their own preferences.
- Believes in borrowing and collaborating with other disciplines in their work.
Analysis:
The term *homo economicus* is traditionally used in economics to describe an individual who acts rationally to maximize utility based on their own preferences. The passage discusses how this model assumes interests determine actions, emphasizing rationality in decision-making processes. It contrasts this with real-world behavior, which often includes irrationality and emotional influences.
Evaluation of Options:
- Option 1: Incorrect. While *homo economicus* involves rational decision-making, this option emphasizes nonmarket choices, which is not part of its definition.
- Option 2: Incorrect. The passage does not state that *homo economicus* is uninfluenced by others’ preferences; it focuses on individual rationality based on preferences.
- Option 3: Correct. This accurately captures the essence of *homo economicus* as described in the passage: someone who makes rational decisions based on personal preferences.
- Option 4: Incorrect. This describes the interdisciplinary approach in modern economics, not the traditional *homo economicus* model.
[S]pices were a global commodity centuries before European voyages. There was a complex chain of relations, yet consumers had little knowledge of producers and vice versa. Desire for spices helped fuel European colonial empires to create political, military and commercial networks under a single power.
Historians know a fair amount about the supply of spices in Europe during the medieval period – the origins, methods of transportation, the prices – but less about demand. Why go to such extraordinary efforts to procure expensive products from exotic lands? Still, demand was great enough to inspire the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco Da Gama, launching the first fateful wave of European colonialism…
So, why were spices so highly prized in Europe in the centuries from about 1000 to 1500? One widely disseminated explanation for medieval demand for spices was that they covered the taste of spoiled meat…
Where spices came from was known in a vague sense centuries before the voyages of Columbus. Just how vague may be judged by looking at medieval world maps…
Geographical knowledge has a lot to do with the perceptions of spices’ relative scarcity and the reasons for their high prices…
Spices never had the enduring allure or power of gold and silver or the commercial potential of new products such as tobacco, indigo or sugar…
Question 5: If a trader brought white peppercorns from India to medieval Europe, all of the following are unlikely to happen, EXCEPT:
Solution:
The passage suggests that medieval maps were not used for accurate navigation, and the introduction of white peppercorns would not significantly change perceptions about spices’ exotic nature or their high cost. However, Europeans would likely question the mythical stories about pepper harvesting, such as snakes guarding pepper trees, upon seeing white peppercorns. Thus, the correct answer is: Option 1.
Interactive Quiz
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Passage:
The history of any major technological or industrial advance is inevitably shadowed by a less predictable history of unintended consequences and secondary effects — what economists sometimes call “externalities.” Sometimes those consequences are innocuous ones, or even beneficial. Gutenberg invents the printing press, and literacy rates rise, which causes a significant part of the reading public to require spectacles for the first time, which creates a surge of investment in lens-making across Europe, which leads to the invention of the telescope and the microscope.
Oftentimes the secondary effects seem to belong to an entirely different sphere of society. When Willis Carrier hit upon the idea of air-conditioning, the technology was primarily intended for industrial use: ensuring cool, dry air for factories that required low-humidity environments. But…it touched off one of the largest migrations in the history of the United States, enabling the rise of metropolitan areas like Phoenix and Las Vegas that barely existed when Carrier first started tinkering with the idea in the early 1900s.
Sometimes the unintended consequence comes about when consumers use an invention in a surprising way. Edison famously thought his phonograph, which he sometimes called “the talking machine,” would primarily be used to take dictation….But then later innovators… discovered a much larger audience willing to pay for musical recordings made on descendants of Edison’s original invention. In other cases, the original innovation comes into the world disguised as a plaything…the way the animatronic dolls of the mid-1700s inspired Jacquard to invent the first “programmable” loom and Charles Babbage to invent the first machine that fit the modern definition of a computer, setting the stage for the revolution in programmable technology that would transform the 21st century in countless ways.
We live under the gathering storm of modern history’s most momentous unintended consequence….carbon-based climate change. Imagine the vast sweep of inventors whose ideas started the Industrial Revolution, all the entrepreneurs and scientists and hobbyists who had a hand in bringing it about. Line up a thousand of them and ask them all what they had been hoping to do with their work. Not one would say that their intent had been to deposit enough carbon in the atmosphere to create a greenhouse effect that trapped heat at the surface of the planet. And yet here we are.
Ethyl (leaded fuel) and Freon belonged to the same general class of secondary effect: innovations whose unintended consequences stem from some kind of waste by-product that they emit. But the potential health threats of Ethyl (unleaded fuel) were visible in the 1920s, unlike, say, the long-term effects of atmospheric carbon build up in the early days of the Industrial Revolution….
Indeed, it is reasonable to see CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) as a forerunner of the kind of threat we will most likely face in the coming decades, as it becomes increasingly possible for individuals or small groups to create new scientific advances — through chemistry or biotechnology or materials science — setting off unintended consequences that reverberate on a global scale.
Question: Carrier, Babbage, and Edison are mentioned in the passage to illustrate the author’s point that:
Solution:
The question is asking about why Carrier, Babbage, and Edison are mentioned in the passage. Let’s analyze each option:
- Option 1: This focuses on the largely beneficial consequences of their inventions. While some consequences were beneficial (like Carrier enabling migration or Babbage inspiring modern computing), the key point is not about their benefit but rather the unexpected nature of the outcomes. Eliminate.
- Option 2: The passage emphasizes that these inventors could not foresee the eventual societal impacts of their inventions. Carrier did not envision migration trends, Babbage did not foresee programmable technology’s revolution, and Edison did not imagine the music industry arising from his phonograph. This is the correct answer.
- Option 3: While the secondary effects led to new inventions (e.g., spectacles, computing), the examples are not used to stress this point. The focus is on the unpredictability of the consequences. Eliminate.
- Option 4: Inventions being used for entirely different purposes is partially true (e.g., the phonograph used for music), but this is not the central reason why these inventors are mentioned in the passage. Eliminate.
Correct Answer: Option 2. These inventors could not have visualised the eventual impact of their inventions on society.
Interactive Quiz
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Passage:
The job of a peer reviewer is thankless. Collectively, academics spend around 70 million hours every year evaluating each other’s manuscripts on the behalf of scholarly journals — and they usually receive no monetary compensation and little if any recognition for their effort. Some do it as a way to keep abreast with developments in their field; some simply see it as a duty to the discipline. Either way, academic publishing would likely crumble without them.
In recent years, some scientists have begun posting their reviews online, mainly to claim credit for their work. Sites like Publons allow researchers to either share entire referee reports or simply list the journals for whom they’ve carried out a review….
The rise of Publons suggests that academics are increasingly placing value on the work of peer review and asking others, such as grant funders, to do the same. While that’s vital in the publish-or-perish culture of academia, there’s also immense value in the data underlying peer review. Sharing peer review data could help journals stamp out fraud, inefficiency, and systemic bias in academic publishing.….
Peer review data could also help root out bias. Last year, a study based on peer review data for nearly 24,000 submissions to the biomedical journal eLife found that women and non-Westerners were vastly underrepresented among peer reviewers. Only around one in every five reviewers was female, and less than two percent of reviewers were based in developing countries…. Openly publishing peer review data could perhaps also help journals address another problem in academic publishing: fraudulent peer reviews. For instance, a minority of authors have been known to use phony email addresses to pose as an outside expert and review their own manuscripts.…
Opponents of open peer review commonly argue that confidentiality is vital to the integrity of the review process; referees may be less critical of manuscripts if their reports are published, especially if they are revealing their identities by signing them. Some also hold concerns that open reviewing may deter referees from agreeing to judge manuscripts in the first place, or that they’ll take longer to do so out of fear of scrutiny.…
Even when the content of reviews and the identity of reviewers can’t be shared publicly, perhaps journals could share the data with outside researchers for study. Or they could release other figures that wouldn’t compromise the anonymity of reviews but that might answer important questions about how long the reviewing process takes, how many researchers editors have to reach out to on average to find one who will carry out the work, and the geographic distribution of peer reviewers.
Of course, opening up data underlying the reviewing process will not fix peer review entirely, and there may be instances in which there are valid reasons to keep the content of peer reviews hidden and the identity of the referees confidential. But the norm should shift from opacity in all cases to opacity only when necessary.
Question: All of the following are listed as reasons why academics choose to review other scholars’ work EXCEPT:
Solution:
The question asks which reason is NOT mentioned as a motivation for academics to review others’ work. Let’s evaluate the options:
- Option 1: The passage mentions that some academics post their reviews online to claim credit for their work, which aligns with this option. Eliminate.
- Option 2: The passage clearly states that peer review is seen as a duty to the discipline, implying it is a service to the academic community. Eliminate.
- Option 3: The passage does not mention reviewing work as a means to expand one’s influence in the academic community. This is not a listed reason. Keep this option.
- Option 4: The passage mentions that academics review work to keep abreast of developments in their field, which aligns with this option. Eliminate.
Correct Answer: Option 3. It is seen as an opportunity to expand their influence in the academic community.
The job of a peer reviewer is thankless. Collectively, academics spend around 70 million hours every year evaluating each other’s manuscripts on the behalf of scholarly journals — and they usually receive no monetary compensation and little if any recognition for their effort. Some do it as a way to keep abreast with developments in their field; some simply see it as a duty to the discipline. Either way, academic publishing would likely crumble without them.
In recent years, some scientists have begun posting their reviews online, mainly to claim credit for their work. Sites like Publons allow researchers to either share entire referee reports or simply list the journals for whom they’ve carried out a review…. The rise of Publons suggests that academics are increasingly placing value on the work of peer review and asking others, such as grant funders, to do the same. While that’s vital in the publish-or-perish culture of academia, there’s also immense value in the data underlying peer review. Sharing peer review data could help journals stamp out fraud, inefficiency, and systemic bias in academic publishing.….
Peer review data could also help root out bias. Last year, a study based on peer review data for nearly 24,000 submissions to the biomedical journal eLife found that women and non-Westerners were vastly underrepresented among peer reviewers. Only around one in every five reviewers was female, and less than two percent of reviewers were based in developing countries…. Openly publishing peer review data could perhaps also help journals address another problem in academic publishing: fraudulent peer reviews. For instance, a minority of authors have been known to use phony email addresses to pose as an outside expert and review their own manuscripts.…
Opponents of open peer review commonly argue that confidentiality is vital to the integrity of the review process; referees may be less critical of manuscripts if their reports are published, especially if they are revealing their identities by signing them. Some also hold concerns that open reviewing may deter referees from agreeing to judge manuscripts in the first place, or that they’ll take longer to do so out of fear of scrutiny….
Even when the content of reviews and the identity of reviewers can’t be shared publicly, perhaps journals could share the data with outside researchers for study. Or they could release other figures that wouldn’t compromise the anonymity of reviews but that might answer important questions about how long the reviewing process takes, how many researchers editors have to reach out to on average to find one who will carry out the work, and the geographic distribution of peer reviewers.
Of course, opening up data underlying the reviewing process will not fix peer review entirely, and there may be instances in which there are valid reasons to keep the content of peer reviews hidden and the identity of the referees confidential. But the norm should shift from opacity in all cases to opacity only when necessary.
Question 21: According to the passage, which of the following is the only reason NOT given in favour of making peer review data public?
Solution:
The passage provides several reasons for making peer review data public, including addressing fraud (Option 1), inefficiencies (Option 3), and gender/race biases (Option 4). However, tackling the problem of selecting appropriately qualified reviewers (Option 2) is not mentioned. Thus, the correct answer is: Option 2.
Interactive Quiz
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Passage:
The job of a peer reviewer is thankless. Collectively, academics spend around 70 million hours every year evaluating each other’s manuscripts on the behalf of scholarly journals — and they usually receive no monetary compensation and little if any recognition for their effort. Some do it as a way to keep abreast with developments in their field; some simply see it as a duty to the discipline. Either way, academic publishing would likely crumble without them.
In recent years, some scientists have begun posting their reviews online, mainly to claim credit for their work. Sites like Publons allow researchers to either share entire referee reports or simply list the journals for whom they’ve carried out a review….
The rise of Publons suggests that academics are increasingly placing value on the work of peer review and asking others, such as grant funders, to do the same. While that’s vital in the publish-or-perish culture of academia, there’s also immense value in the data underlying peer review. Sharing peer review data could help journals stamp out fraud, inefficiency, and systemic bias in academic publishing.….
Peer review data could also help root out bias. Last year, a study based on peer review data for nearly 24,000 submissions to the biomedical journal eLife found that women and non-Westerners were vastly underrepresented among peer reviewers. Only around one in every five reviewers was female, and less than two percent of reviewers were based in developing countries…. Openly publishing peer review data could perhaps also help journals address another problem in academic publishing: fraudulent peer reviews. For instance, a minority of authors have been known to use phony email addresses to pose as an outside expert and review their own manuscripts.…
Opponents of open peer review commonly argue that confidentiality is vital to the integrity of the review process; referees may be less critical of manuscripts if their reports are published, especially if they are revealing their identities by signing them. Some also hold concerns that open reviewing may deter referees from agreeing to judge manuscripts in the first place, or that they’ll take longer to do so out of fear of scrutiny.…
Even when the content of reviews and the identity of reviewers can’t be shared publicly, perhaps journals could share the data with outside researchers for study. Or they could release other figures that wouldn’t compromise the anonymity of reviews but that might answer important questions about how long the reviewing process takes, how many researchers editors have to reach out to on average to find one who will carry out the work, and the geographic distribution of peer reviewers.
Of course, opening up data underlying the reviewing process will not fix peer review entirely, and there may be instances in which there are valid reasons to keep the content of peer reviews hidden and the identity of the referees confidential. But the norm should shift from opacity in all cases to opacity only when necessary.
Question: All of the following are listed as reasons why academics choose to review other scholars’ work EXCEPT:
Solution:
The question asks which reason is NOT mentioned as a motivation for academics to review others’ work. Let’s evaluate the options:
- Option 1: The passage mentions that some academics post their reviews online to claim credit for their work, which aligns with this option. Eliminate.
- Option 2: The passage clearly states that peer review is seen as a duty to the discipline, implying it is a service to the academic community. Eliminate.
- Option 3: The passage does not mention reviewing work as a means to expand one’s influence in the academic community. This is not a listed reason. Keep this option.
- Option 4: The passage mentions that academics review work to keep abreast of developments in their field, which aligns with this option. Eliminate.
Correct Answer: Option 3. It is seen as an opportunity to expand their influence in the academic community.
Fears of artificial intelligence (AI) have haunted humanity since the very beginning of the computer age. Hitherto these fears focused on machines using physical means to kill, enslave or replace people. But over the past couple of years new AI tools have emerged that threaten the survival of human civilisation from an unexpected direction. AI has gained some remarkable abilities to manipulate and generate language, whether with words, sounds or images. AI has thereby hacked the operating system of our civilisation.
Language is the stuff almost all human culture is made of. Human rights, for example, aren’t inscribed in our DNA. Rather, they are cultural artefacts we created by telling stories and writing laws. Gods aren’t physical realities. Rather, they are cultural artefacts we created by inventing myths and writing scriptures….What would happen once a non-human intelligence becomes better than the average human at telling stories, composing melodies, drawing images, and writing laws and scriptures? When people think about Chatgpt and other new AI tools, they are often drawn to examples like school children using AI to write their essays. What will happen to the school system when kids do that? But this kind of question misses the big picture. Forget about school essays. Think of the next American presidential race in 2024, and try to imagine the impact of AI tools that can be made to mass-produce political content, fake-news stories and scriptures for new cults…
Through its mastery of language, AI could even form intimate relationships with people, and use the power of intimacy to change our opinions and worldviews. Although there is no indication that AI has any consciousness or feelings of its own, to foster fake intimacy with humans it is enough if the AI can make them feel emotionally attached to it….
What will happen to the course of history when AI takes over culture, and begins producing stories, melodies, laws and religions? Previous tools like the printing press and radio helped spread the cultural ideas of humans, but they never created new cultural ideas of their own. AI is fundamentally different. AI can create completely new ideas, completely new culture…. Of course, the new power of AI could be used for good purposes as well. I won’t dwell on this, because the people who develop AI talk about it enough….
We can still regulate the new AI tools, but we must act quickly. Whereas nukes cannot invent more powerful nukes, AI can make exponentially more powerful AI.… Unregulated AI deployments would create social chaos, which would benefit autocrats and ruin democracies. Democracy is a conversation, and conversations rely on language. When AI hacks language, it could destroy our ability to have meaningful conversations, thereby destroying democracy….And the first regulation I would suggest is to make it mandatory for AI to disclose that it is an AI. If I am having a conversation with someone, and I cannot tell whether it is a human or an AI—that’s the end of democracy. This text has been generated by a human. Or has it?
Question 8: The author terms language “the operating system of our civilization” for all the following reasons EXCEPT that it
Solution:
The passage elaborates on language as the foundation of human values, culture, and cultural artefacts, and its role in influencing political opinions and fostering emotional ties. However, it does not explicitly describe language as the basis of AI tools like ChatGPT. Thus, the correct answer is: Option 1.
Interactive Quiz
The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.
Passage:
There is a group in the space community who view the solar system not as an opportunity to expand human potential but as a nature preserve, forever the provenance of an elite group of scientists and their sanitary robotic probes. These planetary protection advocates [call] for avoiding “harmful contamination” of celestial bodies. Under this regime, NASA incurs great expense sterilizing robotic probes in order to prevent the contamination of entirely theoretical biospheres. . . .
Transporting bacteria would matter if Mars were the vital world once imagined by astronomers who mistook optical illusions for canals. Nobody wants to expose Martians to measles, but sadly, robotic exploration reveals a bleak, rusted landscape, lacking oxygen and flooded with radiation ready to sterilize any Earthly microbes. Simple life might exist underground, or down at the bottom of a deep canyon, but it has been very hard to find with robots. . . . The upsides from human exploration and development of Mars clearly outweigh the welfare of purely speculative Martian fungi. . . .
The other likely targets of human exploration, development, and settlement, our moon and the asteroids, exist in a desiccated, radiation-soaked realm of hard vacuum and extreme temperature variations that would kill nearly anything. It’s also important to note that many international competitors will ignore the demands of these protection extremists in any case. For example, China recently sent a terrarium to the moon and germinated a plant seed—with, unsurprisingly, no protest from its own scientific community. In contrast, when it was recently revealed that a researcher had surreptitiously smuggled super-resilient microscopic tardigrades aboard the ill-fated Israeli Beresheet lunar probe, a firestorm was unleashed within the space community. . . .
NASA’s previous human exploration efforts made no serious attempt at sterility, with little notice. As the Mars expert Robert Zubrin noted in the National Review, U.S. lunar landings did not leave the campsites cleaner than they found it. Apollo’s bacteria-infested litter included bags of feces. Forcing NASA’s proposed Mars exploration to do better, scrubbing everything and hauling out all the trash, would destroy NASA’s human exploration budget and encroach on the agency’s other directorates, too. Getting future astronauts off Mars is enough of a challenge, without trying to tote weeks of waste along as well.
Question: The author mentions all of the following reasons to dismiss concerns about contaminating Mars EXCEPT:
Solution:
The question asks which reason is NOT mentioned as a basis for dismissing contamination concerns on Mars. Let’s analyze each option:
- Option 1: The lack of evidence for life on Mars is explicitly mentioned as a reason for dismissing contamination concerns. Eliminate.
- Option 2: The author discusses how earlier explorations, such as Apollo missions, have already contaminated space environments. Eliminate.
- Option 3: The author mentions that competitor countries, like China, are unlikely to follow contamination protocols, undermining such efforts. Eliminate.
- Option 4: While the moon is discussed, the passage does not claim that probes have had little environmental impact. This is not a mentioned reason. Keep this option.
Correct Answer: Option 4. The use of similar probes on astronomical bodies like the moon have had little effect on the environment.
