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Questions To Ask An Alien

SPQR

Darwin's Dachshund
SPQR
Joined
Mar 25, 2006
Messages
453
I just started reading Carl Sagan's Demon-Haunted World and in chapter 6 entitled "Hallucinations" Sagan tells of a list of questions he had for someone who was claiming he could could communicate with extraterrestrials. Sagan was invited to "ask them anything" so he asked things like, "Please provide a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem," providing a simple equation with the correct components since the aliens would not call it "Fermat's Last Theorem". No answer was ever provided.

Anyway, as I was reading I thought what better place for such a mental exercise than the JREF Forum? Try to think of questions no human could possibly know the answers to but where a correct answer would be immediately be recognized as such.

Any suggestions?
 
I would ask "what would be such question no human could possibly know the answers to but where a correct answer would be immediately recognized as such."

Since no human could possibly think of such a question.:)
 
"Are you the female of the species...'cos if you are whaddya doing Saturday?"

DB
 
Where are you from, in detail please.

Another good thing from psychology is to ask for your arm to be cut off or some such. A good hallucination will cut off your arm, yet you will be fine.

A lot of the tools used with the menatlly ill to help them deal with hallucinations vs. reality (which are quite helpful for leading a "normal" life, imagine needing tools to figure out what is real and what is your messed up brain!), would work with aliens I think
 
The point is, if the aliens were so much more intelligent than us as we are from apes (to say the least), what kind of communication could possibly occur between us ?
 
Homer: I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the alien. Any questions at all. Dr Hibbert?
Dr. Hibbert: Yes, is the alien carbon based or silicon based?
Homer: Uh, the second one. Zillophone. Next question.
Barney: Is the alien Santa Claus?
Homer: Uh, yes.
 
Mr. Alien, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?
 
Beady said:
"Do you have anything to declare?"

ETA: Look, I work for Immigration. You say "alien" to me, and...
Click to expand...

"Okay, the immigration court has ordered you removed to Mexico. When can we expect you back here?"

I'll start working for Immigration in September
 
[derail]
My son runs a wiki question & answer website. After ~250,000 questions there have been a few which almost fit the bill for the OP:
What are some bulimic recipes?
What should you do if you don't like to wear underwear?
How do you find out how much you weigh?
How would you know if you are a virgin?
Did World War I solve Europe's problems?
What are the native Japanese called and where do they mainly live today?
[/derail]

ETA..A new one I just saw on the site:
How much do Scientologists charge to exorcise a space alien?

:yo-yo:
 
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Why in the world would an alien know about the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands, and how they are sequestered on a northern island? And why in the world would an alien care?
 
Silly Green Monkey said:
Why in the world would an alien know about the original inhabitants of the Japanese islands, and how they are sequestered on a northern island? And why in the world would an alien care?
Click to expand...
That was in the [derail] section of my response. Sorry for the interuption. I did not make up those questions I can only take responsibility for the derail.
 
What principle of physics enabled you to bridge the distance between your homeworld and hours?

--Disappointing answer: "Ohh, the same as what you guys already know. I was approaching a significant fraction of the speed of light, so I got here straight away. Everyone I left behind has been dead for thousands of years now I guess."

How did your civilization manage to learn to cooperate with each other enough to survive to build such advanced technology?

--Disappointing answer: "Ohh, well once someone invented the mind-stapler, it got pretty easy after that."
 
I would ask: Why on earth did you come here?

However, others may ask: Shall we indulge in Rishathra?

glenn:boxedin:
 
SPQR said:
Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
How about:
"How often was a thread on the topic of asking what questions to ask an alien started on the JREF forum, and in how many of those did the thread starter go through the trouble of explaining s/he got the idea from Carl Sagan as if no one had heard of it before. An error margin of 100 is acceptable for both questions."

De_Bunk said:
"Are you the female of the species...'cos if you are whaddya doing Saturday?"
Click to expand...
Answer here.
 
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