Famous physicist Stephen Hawking will be taking questions on Reddit starting Monday morning for longer than a week, the longest forum in history for the sit.
The Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) series is a platform that has been set up for celebrity guests to take in and answer questions through their site. The AMA series has included appearances by President Barack Obama, Billy Nye, Bill Gates, Bernie Sanders and Neil deGrasse Tyson, according to NBC News.
Reddit users are excited to have the famous theoretical physicist, Hawking, as their guest. But the arena is different from other AMA guests in that Hawking will not be taking questions for a set amount of hours, rather, he will be taking questions over a period of more than a week. Hawking will then in turn answer all of the questions in the following weeks.
This new format for the series will allow 73-year-old Hawking to take his time in answering questions. The world renowned scientist who was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he was 21, will be able to compose answers with his Intel-powered assistive computer system. The longer Q & A format for this series was designed specifically to compensate for the communication delay.
Hawking’s AMA will be the longest on in Reddit history, but is welcomed by users who are looking forward to the conversation.
This AMA was set up as part of an initiative that seeks to enable discussions about how technology can best serve humanity. While Hawking will cover many subjects, his main focus will be on artificial intelligence, a topic that Hawking believes could “spell the end of the human race.”
The AMA serious was organized by Nokia and WIRED magazine and the Hawking series will be hosted on the r/science subreddit.
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