Sci-Fi Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. In Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which computer controls the Discovery One spacecraft?
Deep Thought
Mother
Multivac
HAL 9000
2. A researcher can forecast broad trends across enormous populations but cannot reliably predict one person’s choices. Which concept from Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” does this resemble?
Psychohistory
The Prime Directive
The ansible
The Butlerian Jihad
3. Who wrote the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” which inspired “Blade Runner”?
Arthur C. Clarke
Philip K. Dick
Robert A. Heinlein
Ray Bradbury
4. A commercial space crew answers a mysterious transmission and is then hunted aboard the Nostromo by a rapidly developing extraterrestrial organism. Which film is this?
The Thing
Solaris
Forbidden Planet
Alien
5. What feature distinguishes most inhabitants of Gethen in Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Left Hand of Darkness”?
They communicate only through telepathy
They share a single collective consciousness
They live entirely beneath the planet’s surface
They are ambisexual and not permanently one sex
6. A story features corporate-controlled cities, neural implants, pervasive networks, and hackers operating at society’s margins. Which science-fiction subgenre fits best?
Space opera
Cyberpunk
Solarpunk
Alternate history
7. A household robot refuses a command because carrying it out would injure a person. Which fictional rule most directly accounts for that refusal?
Asimov’s First Law of Robotics
Star Trek’s Prime Directive
Dune’s prohibition against thinking machines
The Turing test
8. One astronaut travels near the speed of light while their twin remains on Earth. When the astronaut returns, they have aged less. Which principle best explains the difference?
Quantum entanglement
Gravitational lensing
Relativistic time dilation
Newtonian inertia
9. In “Blade Runner,” the Voight-Kampff test is used primarily to evaluate what?
A person’s ability to navigate off-world colonies
Emotional responses associated with identifying replicants
A machine’s ability to solve logical puzzles
Whether implanted memories are historically accurate
10. Who wrote the novel commonly published as “Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus”?
H. G. Wells
Jules Verne
Mary Shelley
Bram Stoker
11. In Douglas Adams’s “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” what number is presented as the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything?
7
23
101
42
12. A time traveler goes into the past and prevents their own grandparent from having children, threatening the traveler’s existence. Which idea does this illustrate?
The Fermi paradox
The simulation hypothesis
The grandfather paradox
The bootstrap paradox
13. In William Gibson’s “Neuromancer,” what is Case’s primary specialty at the beginning of the story?
Designing artificial life
Hacking computer networks
Piloting interstellar ships
Hunting escaped androids
14. In Frank Herbert’s “Dune,” the spice melange is naturally associated with which planet?
Caladan
Giedi Prime
Arrakis
Kaitain
15. A “Star Trek” captain encounters a pre-warp civilization that has never contacted alien life. Under the Prime Directive, what is the captain generally expected to do?
Avoid interfering with the civilization’s natural development
Offer Federation membership immediately
Share advanced medical and propulsion technology
Relocate the population to a Federation planet
16. In H. G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds,” what ultimately defeats the Martian invaders?
Earth’s microorganisms
A coordinated artillery attack
A malfunction in their heat rays
Negotiations with human governments