I agree with What Exit? that a question-and-answer format is the wrong way to go. We tell them everything we know, while at the same time, they tell us. Far, far quicker that way: In the time it takes you to communicate a single question and answer, you could be transmitting and receiving continuously for decades.
That said, there is one particular sort of information I would request be given a high priority. I would ask them for the state of the art of their communications technology. It may be that we may be able to speed up the rest of the information, by installing some aspects of their com tech on our end.
Not an unreasonable assumption at all. Life on Earth has been around for billions of years - but only for the most miniscule fraction of time have we been advanced enough to transmit and receive signals of this nature.
Assuming the rate of civilizational advance of aliens is even within an order of magntude within our own, the chances we’d catch aliens in the stage that a) their civilizations make the sort of transmission we can pick up and b) they weren’t more advanced than us are ridiculously small. It would be the most incredible coincidence of timing.
Numbers/ratios pulled out of ass:
Imagine the presence of life on Earth as a thousand mile long line. Only during the last inch of this line has there been a civilization around capable of making radio transmissions. In order for us to pick up signals from an alien civilization less advanced than us, they would have to coincidentally be at that stage of civilization that would represent 999 miles, 5279 feet, 11 to 11.99999 inches.
I get that but obviously we could be the advanced ones and this is why everthing is so silent.
But I’d guess that there’s probably a small window in any civilizations developement where they’d find it smart to contact someone else. After a certain point maybe it becomes apparent why this might be a bad idea to begin with.
Is that one of the prime directives? I’m no star trek fan.
I think you have it backwards. Those particular questions ought to help establish what common ground, if any, exists. Any intelligence, no matter its culture or history, must have at some point pondered the nature of the reality surrounding it, where its knowledge comes from, what is of value to it, what ethical framework best stabilizes it, and how and whether it is compatible with governance. For example, if it answered that reality is what it can sense, that knowledge comes from observation, that nothing is more valuable than altruism, that “be fair in all you do” is a moral imperative, and that freedom is the absence of need, we would know enough to proceed with our other questions — which ones would be most interesting to it, and which would be a waste of time. Contrast that with a response saying that nothing physical is real, that knowledge comes from inspiration, that beauty is the most valuable thing, that “take care of your own needs” is a moral imperative, and that freedom is the imposition of will. The questions that follow would be very different
Seriously, though, why not start by just asking them some simple questions. What’s their biology like? What foods or food-analogs do they need, if they need food at all? How do they reproduce, if they do reproduce? How long do they live? How do their young grow, if young they have? Stuff like that.
Well, that’s my point. If there is life out there, it’s a billion times more likely while we’re beaming infomertials out into the heavens, their world’s most advanced species would be invertibrate fish, or bacteria, or perhaps small scavenging land mammals. If they are intelligent, and formed a civilization, most likely that civilization would be far, far older than ours.
Doesn’t that go without saying for almost any question? On what does every human agree? Nothing was said about a single voice speaking for everyone. I’d be interested in the range of answers.
The first thing ham operators do is talk abut their radio equipment. Same approach with aliens.
Get them to describe their communications set up, and you will get all sorts of clues about their technology, their economic and social structure, their main interests, and all based on concepts with which we have a fighting chance to be familiar.
Of course, the mere fact that they exist is a huge increase in our knowledge of the nature of the universe.
Or we could just ask, “What have I got in my pocket?” And if they got the reference, that would be so cool.