The question is chosen

Once upon a time, Elara lived in a village beneath a great mountain. At its summit stood an ancient temple, where an Oracle was said to have read a vast library. No one in the village had ever spoken with her.

One morning, a Gatekeeper arrived with a sealed announcement. The temple would now receive messages by Courier, so the villagers gathered to choose their first message.

A travelling inventor had recently brought them a mechanical raven. It spoke, answered riddles, and insisted that it could think. Half the village believed it. The other half called it an elaborate toy.

Elara gave their argument a question: “How can we tell whether the mechanical raven truly thinks?”

The villagers chose it as their first message.