My cat has asked where my wife is. She has a very specific meow for each of us that she uses when she's looking for us. One day while my wife was at work, cat meowed for my wife. Told the cat she'd be home on a couple hours. Cat curled up by the window, satisfied. Next time it happened, I teased her and tried to play with her. She kept wandering around the house looking for my wife until I told her she was at work. Smart little bastard.

How do you know your cat isnt curious, is it survival bias. All the curious cats died

Pay closer attention, they are communicating all the time. We had a cat family of five, and we're down to the last one, a 17 yo. She has an extremely wide vocabulary, and absolutely asks for water, food, snacks, cuddles, etc.

You know when you sit down with food, and they want to get a sniff of it? What is that, if not "Hey, watcha got? Is it good? Can I have some? Just a sniff?" They aren't deep, philosophical questions, but they are still questions.

They are asking questions and communicating all day long, if you only pay attention to them.

I think there are several separate cognitive abilities needed to ask questions. Curiosity (which is very common), complex communication (much less common), and advanced theory of mind (exists on a spectrum, you need not only awareness of your own mental state, or metacognition, but awareness that others have a mental state that is distinct from your own. Humans actually develop this ability slowly throughout childhood, and it goes through stages). Though there are other species with similar traits, it might well be the case that humans are the only living species in possession of all of them simultaneously.

Cats don’t need to ask questions about the world because they are scientists and will figure it out for themselves if they don’t get shown the answers. They know where the snacks come from, at least in regards to their own world, that’s why they come running when they hear the package.

They knock stuff over to see what happens. They meow for treats to see what happens. They sit on your face to wake you up to see what happens. They get into things just to see what’s in them.

And when the result is something they want, they try it again to see if the result is consistent. Reproducible.

That’s why the best way to get a cat to stop doing something they do to you is to ignore them. They meow to wake you up for food? They do that because it’s been working. Stop responding, and the behavior will also stop.