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As previously announced, /r/philosophy is hosting an AMA series this fall semester which kicked off with AMAs by Caspar Hare (MIT), Kevin Scharp, Kenneth Ehrenberg, Geoff Pynn and the Wi-Phi: Wireless Philosophy team. Check out our series announcement post to see all the upcoming AMAs this semester. We continue our series this upcoming Monday with an AMA by Stephen Puryear (NCSU). Hear it from him: Stephen Puryear I am an assistant professor of philosophy and affiliate of the Classical Studies program at NC State. Before arriving in Raleigh in 2008, I earned my Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh (2006) and spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. My research interests include early modern philosophy and the German philosophical tradition, especially Leibniz, Kant, and Schopenhauer, as well as historical and contemporary work in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy. Much of my published work concerns the philosophy of Leibniz, but I have also written about Berkeley’s idealism, Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy, Frege’s philosophy of language, and the metaphysics of space and time. My main project at present is a book on Leibniz. Besides that, I continue to think about various topics in Schopenhauer’s philosophy, especially his ethics; in moral and political philosophy (obligation, consent, rights, normative theories, animal ethics, etc.); and in metaphysics (infinity, continuity, space, time, etc.). Much of my published work concerns the philosophy of Leibniz, but I have also written about Berkeley’s idealism, Schopenhauer’s moral philosophy, Frege’s philosophy of language, and the metaphysics of space and time. My main project at present is a book on Leibniz. Besides that, I continue to think about various topics in Schopenhauer’s philosophy, especially his ethics; moral and political philosophy (obligation, consent, rights, normative theories, animal ethics, etc.); and metaphysics (infinity, continuity, space, time, etc.). For more on my published work, see my publications page. Some published papers: “Schopenhauer on the Rights of Animals” “Finitism and the Beginning of the Universe” “Finitism, Divisibility, and the Beginning of the Universe: Replies to Loke and Dumsday” “Leibniz on the Metaphysics of Color” “Frege on Vagueness and Ordinary Language” “Monadic Interaction” AMA Professor Puryear will join us Monday for a couple hours of live Q&A on their research interests on Monday at noon. Please feel free to post questions for him here. He will look at this thread before they start and begin with some questions from here while the initial questions in the new thread come in. Please join me in welcoming Professor Puryear to our community!

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I spent 10 years at NASA’s Langley Research Center designing hypersonic engines called scramjets. Scramjets are airbreathing engines (similar to a jet) and enable aircraft-like flight at speeds above Mach 5. At UQ, we flew our own scramjets as part of HyShot, and we are now involved in Hypersonic flights with DST and the US Air Force as part of the HIFiRE Program. From a young age I have always been interested in space travel. The Apollo program and the Space Shuttle really inspired me. However, these launch systems were very wasteful, with over 95% of the take-off mass of Apollo being thrown away on each flight. Almost all current rocket-based space launch systems are the same. Scramjets could help make space launch re-usable. Since 2006, I have been trying to find the best way to do this. What my research group has come up with is called SPARTAN. It uses a scramjet-powered plane as the second stage of a space launch system for small satellites. I received the 2012 International Congress for Aeronatics (ICAS) Von Karman Award for International Co-operation in Aeronautics. I’ll be talking about hypersonic travel at BBC Future’s World Changing Ideas Summit on 15 November in Sydney. I am happy to answer any questions on hypersonic flight and scramjets from 16:00pm EST, 21:00pm GMT. Ask me anything! Signing out now - great comments and conversation. I will check back in later to answer more questions. Cheers!

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Hi reddit! My name is Brad Hayes and I’m a postdoctoral associate at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) interested in building autonomous robots that can learn from, communicate with, and collaborate with humans. My research at MIT CSAIL involves developing and evaluating algorithms that enable robots to become capable teammates, empowering human co-workers to be safer, more proficient, and more efficient at their jobs. Back in March I also created @DeepDrumpf, a Twitter account that sounds like Donald Trump using an algorithm I trained with dozens of hours of speech transcripts. (The handle has since picked up nearly 28,000 followers) Some Tweet highlights: https://twitter.com/DeepDrumpf/status/705480367239659520 https://twitter.com/DeepDrumpf/status/705480113018707969 https://twitter.com/DeepDrumpf/status/705465462721744896 I’m excited to report that this past month DeepDrumpf formally announced its “candidacy” for presidency , with a crowdfunding campaign whose funds go directly to the awesome charity “Girls Who Code”. DeepDrumpf’s algorithm is based around what’s called “deep learning,” which describes a family of techniques within artificial intelligence and machine learning that allows computers to to learn patterns from data on their own. It creates Tweets one letter at a time, based on what letters are most likely to follow each other. For example, if it randomly began its Tweet with the letter “D,” it is somewhat likely to be followed by an “R,” and then a “A,” and so on until the bot types out Trump’s latest catchphrase, “Drain the Swamp.” It then starts over for the next sentence and repeats that process until it reaches 140 characters. The basis of my approach is similar to existing work that can simulate Shakespeare. My inspiration for it was a report that analyzed the presidential candidates’ linguistic patterns to find that Trump speaks at a fourth-grade level. Here’s a news story that explains more about Deep Drumpf, and a news story written about some of my PhD thesis research. For more background on my work feel free to also check out my research page . I’ll be online from about 4 to 6 pm EST. Ask me anything! Feel free to ask me anything about DeepDrumpf Robotics Artificial intelligence Human-robot collaboration How I got into computer science What it’s like to be at MIT CSAIL Or anything else! EDIT (2:30pm ET): I’m here to answer some of your questions a bit early! EDIT (3:05pm ET): I have to run out and do some errands, I’ll be back at 4pm ET and will stay as long as I can to answer your questions! EDIT (8:30pm ET): Taking a break for a little while! I’ll be back later tonight/tomorrow to finish answering questions NOTE FROM THE MODS Guests of /r/science have volunteered to answer questions; please treat them with due respect. Comment rules will be strictly enforced, and uncivil or rude behavior will result in a loss of privileges in /r/science. Many comments are being removed for being jokes, rude, or abusive. Please keep your questions focused on the science.

Hi reddit! In advance of this year’s national election, AAAS is bringing together scientists who have studied how people make up their minds about political issues and, once their opinions are set, how people can change their views. Science Magazine has published a few articles on this topic in 2016. One paper, by Noah Friedkin, explored the question “how do some beliefs within groups persist in the face of social pressure, whereas others change and, by changing, influence a cascade of other beliefs?” Another written by two of us, David Broockman and Joshua Kalla, describes our field experiment that showed that 1 in 10 Miami voters shifted their attitudes toward transgender individuals and maintained those changed positions for 3 months. We are joined by Drs. Samara Klar and Yanna Krupnikov, authors of “Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Leads to Political Inaction.” In the final weekend before the election, we suspect that many family and friends will be speaking about issues that are important to them. Ask us anything on the science of political persuasion! Dr. David Broockman is Assistant Professor of Political Economy, Graduate School of Business, Stanford University Joshua Kalla is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at University of California, Berkeley Dr. Samara Klar is Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of Arizona. Dr. Yanna Krupnikov is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University. We’ll be back at noon EST (9 am PST, 4 pm UTC) to answer your questions, ask us anything!

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Hi Reddit, We are so happy to be here. It’s thyroid awareness week, and we are pretty passionate about it. Let’s dive in. The thyroid is one of the most important organs in the body. It is a gland that secretes hormones which control your body’s metabolism, and it affects everything from your body temperature to your heart rate to how fast food moves through your GI tract. Problems with the thyroid can include the gland making too much hormone (hyperthyroidism) or too little (hypothyroidism). The thyroid can also be a common site for cancer, and in terms of number new cases, thyroid cancer is one of the fastest growing of all forms of cancer. Fortunately, it is also highly treatable. We are dedicated to providing the best medical care and education to patients with disorders of the thyroid gland, and we work to improve the standard of care for thyroid patients worldwide. Learn more about us here. James Lee, MD: Chief of Endocrine Surgery, Co-Director New York Thyroid Center, Columbia University Medical Center Jenn Kuo, MD: Director of Thyroid Biopsy Program, Director of Endocrine Surgery Research Program, Columbia University Medical Center Salila Kurra, MD: Co-Director of Columbia Adrenal Center, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center We will answer as many questions as we can starting at 2pm. EDIT: We’re here, and Dr. Kuo is on her way from the OR. Let’s get started! PROOF Signing as: JL: James Lee JK: Jenn Kuo SK: Salila Kurra EDIT 2: Thanks for all of your insightful questions! This was a blast. We’re signing off for now, but hope to come back and answer a few more this evening. JL/JK/SK To continue this conversation you can always tweet at us via @ColumbiaSurgery

Hi Reddit! I’m Dr. Kate Greenberg, assistant professor of adolescent medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Here, I serve as director of the Gender Health Services clinic, which provides services and support for families, youth, and young adults who identify as transgender or gender non-conforming. Transgender men and women have existed throughout human history, but recently, Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox, and others have raised societal awareness of transgender people. Growing up in a world where outward appearance and identity are so closely intertwined can be difficult, and health professionals are working to support transgender people as they seek to align their physical selves with their sense of self. At our clinic, we offer cross-gender hormone therapy, pubertal blockade, and social work services. We also coordinate closely with urologists, endocrinologists, voice therapists, surgeons, and mental health professionals. Hey all! I’m here and answering questions. First, let me say that I’m pretty impressed with what I’ve read so far on this AMA - folks are asking really thoughtful questions and where there are challenges/corrections to be made, doing so in a respectful and evidence-based fashion. Thanks for being here and for being thoughtful when asking questions. One of my mantras in attempting to discuss trans* medicine is to encourage questions, no matter how basic or unaware, as long as they’re respectful. I will use the phrase trans/trans folks/trans* people throughout the discussion as shorthand for much more complex phenomena around people’s sense of self, their bodies, and their identities. I’d also like to say that I will provide citations and evidence where I can, but will also admit where I’m not aware of much evidence or where studies are ongoing. This is a neglected area of healthcare, and as I tell parents and patients in my clinic, there’s a lot more that we don’t know and still need to figure out. I’m a physician and hormone prescriber, not a psychologist or mental health provider, so I’ll also acknowledge where my expertise ends. Edit: Thanks to everyone for the questions and responses. I will try to come back this evening to answer more questions, and will certainly follow the comments that come in. Hope this was helpful. Moderator Warning: We know that many people have strong feelings about this issue, if you are unable to comment in a civil manner, it would be best to not comment. Our policies on hate-speech will be rigorously enforced, and violators will find their accounts banned without warning. /r/science is about discussing the science of issues, not your personal biases or opinions.