Kevin Mitchell interviewed Philip Ball

Geneticist and neuroscientist Dr Kevin Mitchell looks back over billions of years of evolution to see if science can answer the question of whether humans have free will.

Mitchell says living beings capable of making choices emerged from lifeless matter. He argues that there is a scientific case that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose. Mitchell counters arguments from his own field and from philosophy and physics that we never really make decisions at all. He says that choice and control matter greatly for our future, particularly in our relationship with artificial intelligence.

Mitchell is an associate professor of genetics and neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He writes a popular blog on the intersection of genetics, development, neuroscience, psychology and psychiatry, Wiring the Brain. Here he talks to popular science writer and broadcaster Phil Ball.

Owen Mumford Ltd are supporters of the festival’s science and medicine programme and the festival’s annual award for science and innovation.