Stephen Hawking, the renowned physicist and cosmologist, will host his first Ask-Me-Anything on Internet discussion site Reddit.
In an unusual twist, this AMA will last for just more than a week; most of Reddit s question-and-answer sessions are about an hour. Redditors can submit questions starting Monday at 5 a.m. PT, and continue asking through Aug. 4. Hawking will respond to questions over the coming weeks. Hawking, 73, suffers from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig s disease, which has paralyzed him over the years. He communicates ; the extra time to respond to Redditors questions will be helpful.
The conversation will take place .
Hawking is widely considered one of the most brilliant physicists to have ever lived, and his book A Brief History of Time, an exploration of black holes and other cosmological subjects, spurred heated scientific debate and became a national best seller for years. Reports say Hawking wants to focus the AMA on discussions around artificial intelligence, although likely the questions will vary dramatically — in both substance and tone — as they tend to on Reddit.
Some questions may easily turn to extraterrestrials. to identify intelligent alien life in the cosmos, a project that will be led by UC Berkeley s Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Research Center.
Previous Reddit AMAs have included a wide range of famous and controversial figures, including Julian Assange, Rev. Jesse Jackson and President Barack Obama. The conversation with Hawking may turn out to be one of Reddit s most popular. ; many other users showed their enthusiasm.
This AMA would break reddit. It would be awesome, one Redditor wrote at the time.
The high-profile AMA follows massive unrest at Reddit, beginning with the firing earlier this month of the very employee in charge of organizing AMAs. After Reddit employee Victoria Taylor was dismissed, Redditors revolted, intensifying their attacks — which had been ongoing for months — on then-CEO Ellen Pao. Under fire, , and was replaced by Reddit co-founder Steve Huffman. Huffman, too, has already faced backlash from the more vitriolic members of the site for pledging to rid the online forum of hate speech and harassment.
Photo: Stephen Hawking attends a press conference on the Breakthrough Life in the Universe Initiatives, hosted by Yuri Milner and Stephen Hawking, at The Royal Society on July 20, 2015 in London, England. By Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images for Breakthrough Initiatives.
