Performers: Penderecki String Quartet, Roman Borys, cello, Dancetheatre David Earl Quantifying Goethe presents an evening of music examining the influence of Wolfgang von Goethe on literature, music, and science. The program features the world premiere of award-winning composer Kotoka Suzuki s Quantum Quartet for the Penderecki String Quartet, plus interactive video, dancers, and a quantum computer!

Quantum computers hold the promise to revolutionize the way we secure information, compute and understand the quantum world. Although general-purpose quantum computers appear to be a long way off, we do have good test-beds of small quantum processors. One of the most versatile quantum test-beds is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR): a version of which is familiar to many in the guise of the medical imaging modality, MRI. In fact NMR has broad importance to society: it is used in drug discovery, in oil exploration and to monitor the processing of cheese and chocolate. We will introduce NMR, show how it helps us understand quantum computing and we will look at how concepts based on quantum computing can improve NMR applications.

This discussion explores the promise and perils of thenext 50 years. Can humanity, heading toward a population of approximatley 9 billion, advance economically without overheating the planet? Can food and water supplies be sustained without erasing what's left of wild nature?

This 10th anniversary presentation with PI's Director, and many of the Institute's public and private partners will recap the past ten years of activity at Perimeter, will examine links between theoretical physics and innovation and will preview new, exciting initiatives to come from Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. Note: there is no on-site waiting line for this event.

Based on the success of the Ansari X PRIZE (which stimulated the creation of billion-dollar private spaceflight industry) and more recently the launch of the $30M Google Lunar X PRIZE and the $10M Progressive Automotive X PRIZE, this talk explains how to incentivize breakthroughs. Traditional thinking, risk-aversion and incrementalism will cause the demise of companies unable to cope with the coming decades of disruptive innovation, while the rapid growth of key exponential technologies (Nano, Info, Bio) are empowering individuals and companies to do what only governments were able to achieve in past decades. Such technologies will drive a period of significant disruption and opportunity.

You've heard the physicists speculate on parallel universes, space travel, and time travel. Now come and hear a physicist interview the real experts in these subjects: a bestselling science fiction writer and pioneer of virtual reality discuss what you get when you look at science through fiction.

Over the last decade our picture of the universe has changed almost as much as it had in the preceding century. As a result, our picture of the future, both of the universe, and life within it, has dramatically altered as well. This talk will begin by reviewing the recent revolutionary developments in cosmology, and then address several fascinating questions that have arisen as a result of our discovery that the dominant energy of the universe resides in empty space: Can life be eternal in an eternally expanding universe,? Are the laws of physics tailored for the existence of life? What will science in the far future tell us about the universe?

Commitment to space travel has ebbed and flowed. Physicist Stephen Hawking believes the way to ensure human survival is to continue space exploration. Critics of space travel argue that Planet Earth is in dire need of our attention and resources right now. Is there a trade-off between going to space and fighting climate change, overpopulation and other earthly concerns? Be part of the live studio audience for this special edition of TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin.

Computer science has served to isolate programs and programmers from knowledge of the mechanisms used to manipulate information, however this fiction is increasingly hard to maintain as devices scale down in size and systems scale up in complexity. This talk will explore the consequences of exposing rather than hiding this underlying physical reality, in areas including logic automata, interdevice internetworking, intelligent infrastructure, digital fabrication and programmable matter. Breaking down these boundaries between bits and atoms can help improve not just the performance but also the relevance of information technologies for some of our greatest technological challenges and opportunities.

In our lifetime we have seen a broad transformation in the way we interact with technology in our daily lives. And further developments in technology promise a continued impact. Are we comfortable living in a world that never shuts off? How has this technology affected us, our thinking, our relationships and the way our work works? Is technological progress always for the better? Be part of the live studio audience for this special edition of TVO's Agenda with Steve Paikin.

With studies suggesting the vocabularies of young people today are shrinking and some university professors claiming the essay is hardly worth assigning anymore due to shortened attention spans, some wonder whether technology has done more harm to our kids than good. Our panel of experts will debate the issue.

The search for the origins of species has entailed a series of great adventures over the past 200 years. This talk will chronicle the exploits of a group of explorers who walked where no one had walked, saw what no one had seen, and thought what no one else had thought. Their achievements sparked a revolution that changed, profoundly and forever, our perception of the living world and our place within it.

Are we ready to come face to face with our innermost genetic secrets? Will this knowledge help us make wise choices? Can we trust ourselves and others with safeguarding this most potent knowledge? Be part of the live studio audience for this special edition of TVO's Agenda with Steve Paikin.

The Internet promises the realization of two of humanity's noblest dreams: universal access to all human knowledge and the capacity to form and coordinate groups at virtually no cost. As great as this sounds, it's bad news for certain kinds of top-heavy organizations and the kinds of companies that got rich on exclusion from information. From the UN to shady back-room "plurilateral" treaty negotiations, from the blogosphere to staid standards-committees, the fight over the future rages, with diplomacy and activism at its core.

How will robotics change us and our lives? Will AI driven robots put us on and accelerated evolutionary path? Why would we want a more heavily robotized society? Do we have choice in the matter? Be part of the live studio audience for this special edition of TVO's Agenda with Steve Paikin.

Activity recorded from neurons in the brain often looks random or chaotic. How do we make sense of the world and produce precisely controlled responses when so much of the activity in our brains is chaotic? This talk will show how brain circuits can switch between chaotic and well-controlled patterns of activity, illustrating these points with computer demonstrations of network models. This talk will also discuss how chaotic activity may be useful for a healthy brain function and demonstrate what goes wrong when activity is insufficiently chaotic.

From the Enlightenment onward, science gained our trust and we followed its logic readily. But in an increasingly complex and skeptical world, will advancements in genetics, Artificial Intelligence, and countless other endeavours keep us believing, or will we lose the taste for a life shaped by science and technology? Be part of the live studio audience for this special edition of TVO's Agenda with Steve Paikin.

Quantum Physics. Along with neuroscience and rocket science, it has a reputation of being abstract, inpenetrable and horrendously complicated. Even Einstein himself struggled to get his head around it. But, there’s hope! Using references from movies, books and art, this presentation will guide you through the quantum world and give an overview of science’s best theory of the subatomic world to date. Prepare yourself for a mind-bending journey.

From prehistoric times onward, people have always found ways to incorporate mathematical thinking into art. Today, we have sophisticated mathematical machinery that we can use both to understand the rules that underlie historical patterns and to describe new designs of great beauty and originality. Better yet, computers can serve as a powerful artistic tool, helping make these mathematical visions a reality. This talk will explore some of the exciting contemporary work that lies in the intersection of mathematics and art. We will survey the creations of artists and mathematicians, working alone or in collaboration.

Three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization—half the world’s population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury—is altering humanity’s land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world’s dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth’s resources.

Science journalism is the essential glue connecting science to society. Looking around the world, how is science journalism changing? Is science journalism even essential to good science communication? How else might scientists come to understand the relationship between new technologies and the products of research and the public who will ultimately use them?

Where does technology come from? Physics! Exploring basic mysteries such as "What is light?", "How can atoms exist?", and "What is space and time?" led to computers, wireless communication, mp3 players, lasers, medical imaging - indeed, virtually every "high tech" device on the planet. Join us in a celebration of the immense power of theoretical physics to transform our world for the betterment of humanity, and learn how current theoretical explorations may hold potential for even more fantastic innovations in the future.

In this closing session, festival panelists will look back over the preceding ten days to review what we've learned about the Quantum, the Cosmos, and Ideas for the Future.