Curiosity is an urge to create the mental model of a phenomenon. Think of satisfying curiosity like doing science: when you do it ad-hominem, ask for the informed consent:

Is it okay to ask you __ for the purpose of X?

X = "verifying your position", "making sure that what you are proposing is possible, because I can't believe it yet", "satisfying my desire for certainty about this phenomenon of which I am so uncertain as to have the wildest range of possibilities to consider" etc.