Astonishing thoughts and Vertigo, the complex feeling of fear and desire, sets the theme of the evening. Aiming at expanding our minds, as we begin this years festival with over 300 activities in the program.

Mathematician and politician Cédric Villani, awarded with the Fields Medal, starts the evening with a keynote on (Un)expected intelligence. Human intelligence, which has long been considered unique, is now challenged by artificial intelligence. Is its superiority just an illusion? This, the relationship between science and society, and more perspectives on our exciting future will follow in a panel discussion.

BBC’s Marnie Chesterton hosts the evening, and the panel where Villani is joined by choreographer Louise Crnkovi?-Friis, doing research in Creative Artificial Intelligence with a focus on applying deep learning methods to choreography. And Åsa Wikforss, professor in theoretical philosophy, doing research in the intersection of philosophy of mind, language and epistemology. It is right then, when different perspectives meet, that interesting things happen.

The music of the evening is performed by the new band dÁrc. A collaboration between award-winning singer and choreographer Ida Long, and multi-instrumentalist David Lehnberg. Their music has been heard in several TV series, including Grey’s Anatomy and Mad Men. Visual art and animations are created by artist Josef Lepša, and producer Jan Hrdlicka from 3dsense, based in Prague. And audiovisual installations by HJ and Håkan Lidbo.

There will be sign language interpretation from English to Swedish. Samtalen teckentolkas från engelska till svenska.

There will be a bar and mingle area, open 17:00 - 21:00.

Everyone is welcome and the tickets are free. The doors are open 17.00-17.40 and you need to show your ticket at the door to enter. After 17:45 it is not possible to enter the venue so be sure to be there on time.

Learn more about the festival and program here http://vetenskapsfestivalen.se/hem/

The opening is made possible by a generous donation by Sten A Olsson’s Foundation for Research and Culture, and collaborations with the French Institute and the BBC.