Episode
Through the Wormhole: Do We Have Free Will?
Overview
What if everything that has or will happen in the universe has already been determined and we are unable to change our inevitable destinies? Until the discovery of quantum uncertainty, physicists were convinced free will does not exist. Now neuroscientists and geneticists have stepped into the fray, arguing that free will is an illusion thanks to the genes we are born with, the automatic processes working in our brains, and the conforming pressures of society.
Details
- Series
- Through the Wormhole
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 9
- Air date
- 2013-07-24
- Runtime
- 44 min
Episode context
Do We Have Free Will? is Episode 9 in Season 4 of Through the Wormhole. It aired on 2013-07-24. The runtime is 44 min.
Previous / Next
Episode 8: Is Reality Real?
We are in the midst of a revolution so insidious we can't even see it. From our telephones to our vacuum cleaners to our cars, we have robots that live and work beside us. And now we're designing them to think for themselves, giving them the power to learn to move on their own.
Episode 10: Did God Create Evolution?
What or who created all of the billions of species that have lived on Earth? Is all life the product of evolution as Charles Darwin proposed or was it the guiding hand of a higher power?
More episodes from this season
Episode 7: Are Robots the Future of Human Evolution?
We are in the midst of a revolution so insidious we can't even see it. From our telephones to our vacuum cleaners to our cars, we have robots that live and work beside us. And now we're designing them to think for themselves, giving them the power to learn to move on their own.
Episode 6: Can Our Minds Be Hacked?
Our minds store our entire lives, our memories and our deepest desires. Tell no one, and our thoughts remain our own. But our brains are biological computers. Computer hackers can tamper with our email.
Episode 5: Will Sex Become Extinct?
Every single person who has ever lived was created from the genes of one man and one woman. But human sexual reproduction, unchanged for millions of years, is about to undergo radical change.
Episode 4: How Do Aliens Think?
If the stuff of life is spread throughout the cosmos, then the universe could be teeming with aliens.
Episode 3: Can We Survive the Death of the Sun?
We are all at the mercy of the Sun. Its glowing disc sustains nearly all life on Earth. But the Sun also holds a dark secret: someday, our aging, expanding star will bathe the Earth in a fiery holocaust. Everything we know will turn to hot, bubbling, plasma.
Episode 2: When Does Life Begin?
It is a debate that has raged for centuries’. Groundbreaking evidence reveals that inside all of us are traces of cells from our relatives, blurring the lines between one life and another. Technology is now giving birth to new life forms made of surprising components – from droplets of oil in a Petri dish, to conscious robots and to a new global internet-connected life form comprised of all humanity.
Episode 1: Is There a God Particle?
Scientists explore the effects of the Higgs Boson discovery, which validates the Standard Model in particle physics and solidifies the understanding of subatomic particles; highlights include an in-depth discussion of the Higgs field and mass.