The occasional rainy day is the rule rather than the exception during the Finnish summer, but with these videos, you can look back on the beautiful days we had at SHIFT. So, if you missed Blinky back in May or want to ponder on the dangers of automated security a second time, this is your chance. Relive the SHIFT Business Festival movie theater – from the cutely quirky to the darkly dystopian.

Please note that some of the videos include material that might be disturbing to some people.

Uncanny Valley by Federico Heller

Uncanny Valley portrays a world where addiction is something even more serious than just a cost to society. It raises questions about where VR and AR technologies may be taking us if we’re not careful.

Besides the world of VR junkies, the film explores the concept of Omnireality, the extension of reality as we know it. Will it be normal in a few years’ time to talk about virtual realities as real as the physical one? Or about artificial senses as real as the ones we’re born with? How will our own senses adapt if we begin living in virtual realities where the old laws of physics no longer apply?

The Intelligence Explosion by Dan Susman

What would happen in a roundtable discussion between a group of people with opposing opinions of the future and the superintelligence itself? This superintelligence has something up its sleeve that it wants to show off after taking in the panelists’ thoughts about dystopia, utopia and ethical problems.

The future of intelligence is not something to be taken lightly. The huge leaps Artificial Intelligence takes on a daily basis bring us countless possibilities for business and society, but also new challenges. What will happen when the machines become smarter than us?

Blue-Eyed Me by Alexey Martin

We all love being a little special, in our own ways. The possibilities for taking yourself to the next level are already abundant and constantly growing. However, by embracing your uniqueness, you might find yourself in the same situation as the owner of the blue-eyed fish.

Neuro, bio and integrated technologies will push human evolution to a whole new level. The ability to amplify ourselves doesn’t come without several ethical and societal dilemmas. Who has access to and is allowed to use such devices? What will happen to equality when only the rich can afford new technologies?

Blinky by Ruairi Robinson

Everybody loves making new friends, especially when we’re feeling alone. Nothing is more welcome than a friend who stays with us through the rainy days and is always there to help. “No problem!”

What if this friend were a robot? Emotionally intelligent machines are already superior to humans when it comes to recognizing emotions from speech. What will the future bring when machines also learn to emulate and truly feel human emotions?

Mother of Nature by David Armsby

Mother of Nature explores the unfairness and unfortunate occurrences in our lives that are enough to pull the rug from under our feet. But someone has to be the unlucky one, right? There must be a grand plan and a reason why things happen the way they do.

The character of Mother of Nature resembles the work of Geoffrey West. When talking about business and society, there is a lot we can learn from the laws of nature and biology. Where they are applied, the results are not always nice to everybody. What does continuous growth require and what are the consequences?

Abiogenesis by Richard Mans

There was a time when the sky was the limit and everything beyond was science fiction. Now, the next planet we will call home could be waiting somewhere in space, just around the proverbial corner.

Humanity is well on its way to becoming an extraterrestrial species, and intelligent space is soon going to be something more than just a hunt for aliens – taking over space and coming to terms with whatever is waiting for us out there is going to affect the way we live. Just remember how humanity once thought the Earth was like a pancake that you could fall off if you sailed too far.

Slaughterbot by Stuart Russell and the Future of Life Institute

Slaughterbot tells the classic story of a great idea turned into a disaster; in this case, it’s the story of new technology designed to increase security doing the opposite.

In a world of rapid technological development, the security threats we face become smarter every day. It is only natural, then, that the systems we use to enhance safety should evolve in a matching pace, but what happens when the systems become too powerful, and the reins are handed over to an artificial brain with no human sensibilities?

Numbers by Robert Hloz

“Numbers always lead to pain”. Imagine a world where people are reduced to numbers – patterns, not people. Soon you will probably wish you didn’t have to see it.

The final track of this year’s SHIFT, Algorithmic Inequality, was all about people as numbers. Amidst different views of the topic, the most important thing we learned was that we absolutely must make an effort to see it: how numbers about us are being used. That way, maybe numbers can lead to something more than just pain.