Oscar: Emerging information technologies will

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Logical Reasoning question.

TopicsNecessary Assumption

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Stimulus

Oscar: Emerging information technologies will soon make speed of information processing the single most important factor in the creation of individual, corporate, and national wealth. Consequently, the division of the world into northern countries—in general rich—and southern countries—in general poor—will soon be obsolete. Instead, there simply will be fast countries and slow just a matter of its relative success in incorporating those new technologies.

Sylvia: But the poor countries of the south lack the economic resources to acquire those technologies and will therefore remain poor. The technologies will thus only between north and south.

What this question is testing

Necessary Assumption

Conclusion

Sylvia disagrees with Oscar. She's saying the new tech will make the rich-poor gap between north and south worse, not erase it.

Evidence

Her reason: the south can't afford the new tech, so they stay poor.

Evaluate

Here's the gap. "Staying poor" is not the same as "the gap widens." The gap could only widen if the north pulls further ahead. If both regions stagnate, the gap stays the same. If the north also fails to use the new tech effectively, the south staying poor doesn't make the gap any wider.

Think of it like a race. If runner A stays in place, the gap with runner B only grows if B keeps running forward. If B also stops, the gap is unchanged.

Goal

Find the assumption that the north will actually benefit from the new technologies.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question

Sylvia’s reasoning depends on the assumption

Answer choices

Out of Scope2% picked this
the prosperity of the rich countries of the north depends, at least in part, on the natural resources of the
The argument is about what will happen going forward with new information technologies. Whether the north's current prosperity depends on southern resources is irrelevant. Negation test: even if northern prosperity does not depend on southern resources, Sylvia's argument that the south can't afford the tech and the north can still works. Not necessary.
2%
Out of Scope16% picked this
the emergence of new information technologies will not result in a significant net increase in the total
Sylvia's argument doesn't require any claim about total global wealth changes. Negation test: even if the new technologies do create a significant net increase in global wealth, Sylvia could still argue that virtually all of that increase goes to the rich north (which can afford the tech) and none to the south, widening the gap. The argument survives negation.
16%
Out of Scope5% picked this
there are technologies other than information technologies whose development could help narrow the existing economic gap
Sylvia's argument is about what will happen with the new information technologies — not about whether some hypothetical alternative technology could close the gap. Negation test: even if no other technologies could close the gap, Sylvia's argument still goes through. And even if some could, that's a separate question — Sylvia can still claim that these technologies will widen the gap.
5%
Correct75% picked this
at least some of the rich countries of the north will be effective in incorporating new information
Why this is right
This is the assumption Sylvia's argument needs. For the gap to widen, the south staying poor isn't enough on its own — the north has to actually benefit from the new tech and pull ahead. That requires that at least some of the rich northern countries successfully incorporate the technologies. Negation test: suppose none of the rich northern countries effectively adopt the technology. Then both regions stagnate. The south is still poor and the north isn't pulling ahead, so the gap doesn't widen — it stays the same. Sylvia's conclusion fails. So her argument depends on this assumption.
Skill tested: Necessary Assumption · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
75%
Out of Scope2% picked this
the speed at which information processing takes place will continue to
Sylvia doesn't need a claim about what happens to processing speed indefinitely. Negation test: even if processing speeds eventually plateau, the south could still be too poor to acquire the current generation of tech and the north could pull further ahead with the tech available now. The argument survives.
2%

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