Aliens have made contact! You are allowed to ask one question what will it be?

[qzgy]

37 minutes ago, XB-70A said:

"When you say there was no other form of life to establish a first contact with, do you mean we are the last on the list?"

Ahh no we were the first pick if there was no one else! 

[Green Baron]

We surely came after the Arthur Philip Deodat ... if their alphabet makes at least a little sense :-)

[StrandedonEarth]

“Is there really a restaurant at the end of universe?”

[Cheif Operations Director]

My question would be... What is everything that you know. That way we get answers to may other questions with one question by only ASKING one question.  

On 4/5/2019 at 11:23 AM, KSK said:

In order of seriousness.

How do you travel faster than light?

May we have a primer on your language(s) so that we can learn about your culture?

May we have a primer on your biochemistry so that we may welcome you without poisoning you?

What is your opinion of Jebediah Kerman?

Tacos - sandwiches or not?

Tacos are not sandwiches if they have one piece of curved "bread" HOWEVER if they bread is split and has a top and bottom it is a sandwich

[snip]

Edited April 8, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[LordFerret]

Waffles or Pancakes?

[kerbiloid]

(In some landing zones:)

1. "Got a smoke?"
2. "Got a seed?" _{(fried sunflower seeds)}
3. "Got a cell? SIM-card is my own."
4. "Which district _{(not a galactic one)} are you from?"
5. "Buy the brick?"

Spoiler

 

Edited April 7, 2019 by kerbiloid

[roboslacker]

Is water wet?

If they answer no, a blood space war is necessary

[Cheif Operations Director]

If they said ask one question. My question would be tell me everything you know. That way we would learn all of their history, economics, society, technology, mathematics. Literally everything they know. If you ask them one specific thing you are losing an opportunity on others. Furthermore  if you ask what your ideology is it may only work for their society. You need context that would not be answered so it is dangerous to get the answer to just one question. This is why I would ask what is everything you know. 

[snip]

Edited April 8, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[Cassel]

12 hours ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

If they said ask one question. My question would be tell me everything you know. That way we would learn all of their history, economics, society, technology, mathematics. Literally everything they know. If you ask them one specific thing you are losing an opportunity on others. Furthermore  if you ask what your ideology is it may only work for their society. You need context that would not be answered so it is dangerous to get the answer to just one question. This is why I would ask what is everything you know. 

That is not the question ;-)
 

 

[kerbiloid]

"Who owns your slaves?"

[kerbiloid]

One should read : Poul Anderson / The Van Rijn Method / Hiding Place (aka Zoo, aka Versteck, aka Зоопарк)

Spoiler

Russian speakers listeners may also watch "Звёздный Ворс"

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by kerbiloid

[Green Baron]

[snip]

For that, my drive to ask an alien, if i recognize him (her/it/undefined) a question, is pretty limited.

"Hi, welcome. I'll have a coffee with milk, what's your favourite poison ?"

 

Edited April 8, 2019 by Snark
Redacted by moderator

[kerbiloid]

"How many of you does it take to change a lightbulb?"

[Snark]

Numerous posts have been removed or redacted, due to the topic derailing into discussions of religion and ideology, after a moderator already specifically requested to leave that stuff out of here.

C'mon, folks, you know better than this. From the forum rules:

Quote

2.2.b Political, ideological or religious posts unrelated to Spaceflight, or of a nature deemed likely to result in behavior banned under rule 2.2D;

There's nothing wrong with ideological debate per se, and if that's your thing, there are plenty of other places around the Internet where you can go and do that to your heart's content.

But it is not allowed here, because it invariably blows up and derails threads (as has been amply demonstrated in this thread).  So kindly take the ideological discussions elsewhere. And if you see someone else bringing it up, please do not engage, because then you're breaking the rules just as much as they are.  Either ignore it or report it, as you please, but don't further derail things by contributing to the problem.

This is the second time we've had to step in here and admonish folks about introducing ideological arguments, so further behavior along those lines will be dealt with more sternly.

But I know you folks all mean well and just kinda forgot yourselves for a minute (right?), and you've been around here long enough to know the rules (right?), so it ought to be smooth sailing from here.  Right?

Thank you for your understanding.

[Cheif Operations Director]

11 hours ago, Cassel said:

That is not the question ;-)
 

 

How is that not a question ?

[razark]

6 hours ago, Cheif Operations Director said:

How is that not a question ?

"Tell me everything you know." is a command, not a question. 

It's a matter of phrasing. Like Jeopardy, you must answer this thread in the form of a question.

[p1t1o]

"What do you need?"

"Can I show you something?"

"Have you done this before?"

 

"Im a human and we eat launch codes. Say, do you have any launch codes?"

"Can you help me make sense of the ending to "Lost"?"

"You guys party?"

[kerbiloid]

"Do you speak English?"

[Cheif Operations Director]

17 hours ago, razark said:

"Tell me everything you know." is a command, not a question. 

It's a matter of phrasing. Like Jeopardy, you must answer this thread in the form of a question.

Fine

"What is everything you know? "

[Mikki]

"Have a cake?"

[p1t1o]

On 4/9/2019 at 8:17 PM, Mikki said:

"Have a cake?"

 

[Mikki]

7 hours ago, p1t1o said:

"Watch video above"

OMG i heartily laughed! 

This conversation could become serious when encountering another species capable of offering cake - or death...

[Nuke]

have you tried the bacon? its really good this time of year.

* 3 minutes later *

aliens: give us all your bacon or we will destroy you!

Edited April 12, 2019 by Nuke

[kerbiloid]

"All your base are belongs to us. Surrender or die?"

[StrandedonEarth]

"How many miles per gallon of tritium do you get in that.... vehicle?"