One week from this Friday, on May 22, at 1 p.m. I’m doing a live reddit science AMA “Ask me anything” feature, where I’ll take two hours (or more, if I’m still sentient) answering readers’ questions about, yes, anything. I believe people post their questions beforehand, and then I start answering them at 1 p.m. Eastern time (noon Chicago time).
The occasion is the book, of course, but readers certainly aren’t limited to questions about Faith vs. Fact. This doesn’t mean that all questions will be answered (stuff like “How many pairs of boots do you own?” is probably not germane), but anything outside that ambit is fair game, and I’ll try to answer questions in order. Evolution, literature, religion—all are fair game.
I’ll have more information next week about where to go to pose questions.
So how many pairs of boots do you own?
Just getting this pressing issue out of the way to clear the decks for real questions 🙂
More then ten and less than a thousand.
What’s the margin of error?
😀
Typically when someone says a question is “not germane,” he’s hiding something.
Really, even when they ask personal stuff? I think that personal questions about one’s life and so on are “not germane.” Opinions about issues, however, are clearly germane.
I think the questions actually come in almost in real time and you decide which ones you can answer. People ask can upvote questions.
I’ve been told that it’s not proper form on reddit to cherry-pick questions, and I can see the point of that. If you don’t want to answer one, you can say “No comment,” but you don’t want to answer questions that you think will just burnish your image. It’s a free-for-all, and I’m fine with that.
That’s more or less how it goes Professor. Often you’ll get more questions than can be answered in the alotted time, and/or multiple duplicate questions, and it’s ok to not provide an answer to every single one. But if you try to keep the focus too narrow, e.g. by answering only questions about your new book, you will be punished by the Reddit mob. Look up Woody Harrelson’s AMA for a great example of one that went horribly wrong. For Woody at least.
Also you can expect to be asked if you would rather fight one horse sized duck or many duck sized horses.
I hope you will enjoy it. I for one am looking forward to reading it.
Wow – these reddit Q&A sessions are fun and I hope you enjoy it! I look forward to reading.
Too bad you can’t do it like The Mighty Favog. Might be able to score some good noms that way.
(Unfortunately, it’s basically impossible to get any clips of him. This one, the finale, is about all I can find, but a few of us will remember that he’d answer questions for two chickens and things like that.)
What fun! I’m all for Professor Coyne being available to the general public. He’s one of the world’s greatest advocates for plain ol’ common sense, science, and reason. Not to mention cats, boots, and food. I have learned a lot from him just by how he responds to anyone, from the idiot to the intelligently misguided.
Here is one for you – what do you make of this???!
Pope Francis says Environmental Sinners Will Face God’s Judgment
http://ecowatch.com/2015/05/13/pope-francis-encyclical-cimate-change/
Can’t wait. 🙂
I couldn’t help myself. I responded to some of the stupider Intelligent Design & Creationist posts. Most of them had obviously never read WEIT is true, or they’d know the answer to their “questions.” (Really, challenges they are parroting from AIG)