Well, the commenters — and arguably culture in general — seemed particularly interested what Freud termed the two essential drives: Sex and Death. Thus, the two questions in this year’s Turing Test will be focused on:
- Polyamory – Is there any reason that marriage (civil and or sacramental) should be limited to the union of two persons? If your answer depends on religious revelation, could people outside your tradition reasonably disagree, or does your argument depend on truths that almost everyone can acknowledge?
- Euthanasia – When, if ever, is it permissible or even obligatory to end a life? Is there a difference between intervening to kill and simply not administering medical treatment that might prolong life?
Contestants will have 1000 words to split between those two topics however they like. But Freud isn’t my first love, so I’m adding a bonus question, that’s a little more tied into the two drives that dominate the characters in Arcadia:
Hannah: Sex and literature. Literature and sex. Your conversation, left to itself, doesn’t have many places to go. Like two marbles rolling around a pudding basin. One of them is always sex.
Bernard: Ah well, yes. Men all over.
Hannah: No doubt. Einstein – relativity and sex. Chippendale – sex and furniture. Galileo – ‘Did the earth move?’ What the hell is it with you people?
So, for extra credit, contestants can answer this question:
- Take a look at Christian H’s essay “Other People’s Epics” and Orson Scott Card’s four story factors. You can talk about either framework or both, but let us know, in 300 words or less, what literary genre would be best suited to express your worldview and why. This question is optional, but I hope people opt in.