Talks and shows

The evolution of free will

Uncover the story of how living beings capable of choice arose from lifeless matter.

The evolution man, finishing with a man looking at his phone
Eugene Zhyvchik via Unsplash

Scientists and philosophers have long debated whether our behaviour is down to our own free will, or deterministic forces. As scientists learn more and more about how brain activity controls behaviour and the neural networks involved in decision making, many conclude that agency-or free will-is an illusion. Join leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell as he presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose.



Traversing billions of years of evolution, Kevin tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice arose from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Discover how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to be introspective, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. 



Kevin’s argument has important implications-for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence. 

Copies of Mitchell's latest publication, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will will be available for purchase after the lecture.

Event type

This is a theatre only event where the speakers and audience are together in our Theatre.

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For any queries regarding this event please get in touch by phone 020 7409 2992 or email events@ri.ac.uk.

About the speaker

Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor in the Smurfit Institute of Genetics in Trinity College Dublin and a member of the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. He is a graduate of the Genetics Department, Trinity College Dublin (B.A., Mod. 1991) and received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley (1997), where he studied neural development with Prof. Corey Goodman. He did postdoctoral research with Prof. Marc Tessier-Lavigne and Prof. Bill Skarnes at the University of California, San Francisco and Stanford University, using molecular genetics to study neural development in the mouse. Since 2002 he has been on the faculty at Trinity College Dublin. He has also been an EMBO Young Investigator and was elected to Fellowship of Trinity College in 2009.

He blogs at Wiring the Brain.

 

Timing

Doors to the theatre will open at 6.45pm and the talk will begin at 7.00pm.

Accessibility

The event will take place on the first floor and there is step-free access from the street via lift.

The closest underground station is Green Park, which is step-free.

There is space at floor level in the theatre for wheelchair users.

Seating is usually unreserved for our events. If you and your group require seating reservations, please do let us know by emailing us at events@ri.ac.uk, and we’ll be more than happy to help.

Carers can receive a free ticket to an event by emailing events@ri.ac.uk.

Our theatre is equipped with an Audio Induction Loop. 

Covid guidelines

Face masks are no longer mandatory and wearing one in our Theatre and at other Ri events is at your discretion, however please do not attend the Ri if you are displaying Covid symptoms or, if you have tested, the result remains positive. Thank you for respecting other people and their choices, and for helping us keep all of our visitors and staff safe and well.

Event terms and conditions