////////: would you rather interview an alien or a time traveler? why? what sort of questions would you ask them?
ColorStorm: Too hard a question to decide. But I can list the types of questions I would ask each one.
Time traveler:
If you change the past, does it change the present from which you came? Or do you jump to an alternate timeline? How similar are the timelines you jump to from your own? Can you choose how close a timeline you jump to, or anything about the nature of it? If so, how close does it get? What are some things that tend to be different between different timelines? And how close are those timelines compared to how close they get?
What happens in our future? Is there a worldwide calamity? Was there a world war? Are people dying from lack of food or water, due to overpopulation? Is there a lack of oxygen due to deforestation? Whatever happened with Global Warming? Are more people dying of cancer? What technological innovations are realized? What is civilization like? How do people spend their time?
Is there a One World Government? Is there still the same two-party political system in the United States? Does the United States still exist?
Can we do interstellar travel? Have we discovered aliens? What are they like? What have they taught us?
Is there an abundance of transhumanism? Is it necessary modifications of the body, due to pollutants, genetic drift, or whatever, or is it purely optional? Is it 'standard' to get certain modifications or is it a practical choice and what percentage of people get them? What kind of modifications do people get? If there are standard modifications, do we get them at a young age before we're even old enough to make an intelligent decision on the matter?
Why don't we see more time travelers? When is time travel invented?
Alien:
What is the universe like? What are the fundamentals of physics/metaphysics that we've yet to discover? Is there an afterlife, and what is it like, if you know? How advanced is your technology? Do you have artificial intelligence? Do you have conscious space ships or other devices? Can you travel faster than light, and if so, how? What is your culture like? How do you organize it and get people to cooperate and produce products and services? Is there voting?
What is your business with humanity? Is it just to observe, or something else? Is it malevolent? Are there any other species visiting us with malevolent intention? How many species of aliens are visiting us? What are all their purposes for doing so? What are they all like?
What do you and other alien species think of humanity, from your observations? How does it compare to other intelligent species, especially earlier on in their evolution if they're more advanced? Is there any hope for us? Can you time travel? Have you seen our future?
What are all the alien species you know of like? What percentage of stars in the universe have life? What percentage have "intelligent" life? What percentage have interstellar travel? What percentage have populated space or planets around other stars?
Have you modified your own DNA, and if so in what ways? And why? Was it just to improve yourselves, was it necessary to continue the species (and if so, why was it?), etc.?
Have aliens modified human/primate DNA?
Are you telepathic? Are any alien species telepathic?
How connected are you with the cosmos? Is the cosmos fundamentally living? Do you conspire with divine intelligence to make your space ships or anything else?
////////: wow. well thought out set of questions man, nice!
////////: (if i may make one addition to the list of questions for the time traveler: so what are this weekends winning lottery number combination? haha
////////: ok, i'll explain here why i deleted that question.... i suppose i don't have to... but i feel like i should...for some reason. anyway
////////: it was because i was bored, since no one was online at the time, so i sent out random, weird anonymous messages to a few random people, and to my surprise they
////////: actually answered it. then i realised that i had just asked two questions the same time i asked the anon questions...and that anyone with half a brain would put
////////: 2 and 2 together (or whatever that saying is) and suspect me of being the one that asked the anon questions - so i deleted my public ones.
////////: for the record though i rarely ever send out random anon questions, and they weren't anything bad. well...not that bad lol.
ColorStorm: oh, I see. =)