Why Are We Here?

The volunteers gather in front of the castle and one places EEG equipment on his head. His brain signals can be seen projected onto the side of the castle. The EEG specialist explains how they change when a decision is made and how they can complete the Libet Experiment. What do they see when they press the red button and what will it tell them about the brain when they make a decision?

Have we actively chosen the outcomes of our lives or have they been pre-determined? The volunteers are joined by their doppelgangers to help them demonstrate that the realms of possible realities is vast.

The volunteers need to think like scientists to make the perfect cocktail. They are presented with a cocktail glass on a pedestal and they must use a pendulum to complete the cocktail with an single olive without touching the glass.

The volunteers enter a dining room to see floating plates of food in front of them. The plates are floating above the table with no means of support that can be seen. Can they work out why and how the plates of food are magically floating?

Join Stephen Hawking as he sets three ordinary people a truly mind-bending challenge: Can they work out why they exist at all? Hawking takes them down a rabbit hole of profound realizations, helping them think like philosophers as much as scientists. #HawkingGeniusPBS