So, can anyone think of questions to ask our elusive aliens? That's the best I could think of, if I had to pick one, it would be for fusion energy, or something better. I think that's the key, everything else should fall into place after that
This is an absolutely awesome thread jonathan. I love these kind of thought provoking topics. I'm going to comment a bit on your list, and then add my own questions. I'd be careful of the way you ask this. Obviously, there is no renewable energy but there may be a system that maximises the energy output and minimises the energy waste. We don't want our neighbours thinking that we don't even understand basic physics and thermodynamics and just moving on... I agree with you that they may be completely different to us biologically and perhaps have no notion of disease. But perhaps, we could show them what we already know of our DNA and the molecular make-up of some diseases and they may intuitively know how to cure it. Similar, perhaps, to me going back in time and saying to Einstein, "I have energy and the speed of light squared, but this equation is still missing something." It could just fall into place. This is dangerous when paired with our economic system. Imagine if their world was completely devoted to science discovery, or spirituality. They would have a labour saving device/system to do ALL their work for them. Can you imagine how that would absolutely cripple our world? No one would have any jobs, and wouldn't be able to afford to eat, etc, etc. Yes! Download everything you have discovered about the universe into my brain. Haha, this is the main question. If we learnt from the aliens everything that they know about the universe, we could possibly overtake them in technological advancements in the near future. We could complete our physics theories. We could conquer the distances of space. The possibilities are endless. Refer to what Wrey said about this. We already have moral and ethical systems that could have us living blissfully, but unfortunately, that's ruined by humanity's inherent individuality and the popularity contest political system that's too scared to force the systems. This could quite possibly be achievable. There is a species of jellyfish that is biologically immortal and if we could replicate that in our own cells then... awesome. The aliens could have even evolved with biological immortality. However, this question/answer is also dangerous. What impact would six billion reproducing immortal humans have on the planet? The aliens would have all their social systems set up to incorporate their immortality. We, however, do not. This could be answered in the universe question. But this is a very important question nonetheless. As mentioned above, we'd need to be careful with what was revealed to us. Our social, legal, political, religious systems are quite simply hanging on by a thread. One small imbalance could topple the whole system. If we had an answer to one of those questions, the impact could be enormous. If we were going to ask the above questions, then we'd need to ask how their political, legal and social system is set up first. Think of the labour saving device question. What if it was our feudal past selves that asked that question and we were taught how to make robots and given the assembly line. Think of the social turmoil with all those out of work serfs and peasants. It would cripple the economy of whatever particular state had this question answered and implemented. The reversal of that would also be interesting. What if our modern selves asked this question and the answer was, "Oh, sure, we use slaves. We definitely recommend inferior social classes to do all your work." With this answer, we've garnered nothing. Hence it would be quite prudent to find out how their political, legal and social systems are set up first. The incessant obsolescence postulate should not impact these decisions anyway. Send the first probe to a very close star. Send the more advanced, faster probe to the next nearest star, and so on ad infinitum (did I use that correctly?). Even bearing in mind the point your last paragraph made, Cogito, wouldn't a simple "yes" or "no" answer be more than enough? Especially if it regards the presence of other sentient lifeforms. It would give us a location to focus on. Now, to my questions. My most selfish question would be "Please, please, please take me to your home planet." I want absolutely nothing more in this life than to see with my own eyes another planet from that planet's surface. For it to be one with a whole population and cities and culture and everything that goes with that would be amazing. I don't care if I die on that planet five minutes after I get there. To me, my life would be complete. But, my selfless questions would be ones that would (hopefully) benefit humanity. Tell me about genetic engineering? Have they done it? What did they look like before they tried it? What are the detrimental effects of gene engineering? I would want to know all the pros and cons of it so that we can either abandon or continue our research into it. Are you able to eliminate any of our diseases? This one is obvious. Have you encountered ANY other life forms in the galaxy/universe? I would hope that they have. It would be quite sad if we discovered aliens who were from another galaxy only to find that Earth is the only inhabited planet they found in our galaxy. Personally, I believe that life has developed elsewhere, but I do realise that the circumstances for that to happen are very rare and precise and as a result, I do not hold much hope for there being near-earth alien lifeforms. Other than those questions, I would want to look at their books (or whatever they use instead) concerning their history. Imagine the history of our world. With our dinosaurs and early mammals all the way through the earliest Man to modern man. Then the indepth look at our previous civilisations, the wars that have been fought, the heroes that have stood up. Imagine all of that, but differently, and on another planet. I could devote the rest of my life to reading all that information. And that ends my epic post.
