Chris Anderson, Curator of the TED Conference

Chris Anderson is the curator for TED, an extraordinary Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference held every year in Monterey, California. The first TED in 1984 included the public unveiling of the Macintosh computer and the Sony compact disc, while mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot demonstrated how to map coastlines with his newly discovered fractals and AI guru Marvin Minsky outlined his powerful new model of the mind. The roster of speakers now includes scientists, philosophers, musicians, religious leaders, environmentalists and many others. Those who have spoken at TED include Bill Gates, Frank Gehry, Jane Goodall, Billy Graham, Herbie Hancock, Murray Gell-Mann, and Larry Ellison. Yet often the real stars have been the unexpected: Li Lu, a key organizer of the Tiananmen Square student protest, Aimee Mullins, a Paralympics competitor who tried out a new pair of artificial legs on-stage, or Nathan Myrrhvold speaking not about Microsoft platforms, but about dinosaur sex. Even with a steep price tag and no advertising or PR, an invite-only TED conference pass is one of the hottest tickets around. Anderson calls TED "the official, pre-release version of Heaven," and we wanted to find out why.

How did you become involved with the TED conference?

I bought it from the founder Richard Saul Wurman. I fell in love with TED from the first day I went, back in 1998. Had never before met so many cool people in one place at one time... nor got so excited at the ideas they were sharing.

What kind of people attend, and what does it take to get invited?

It's a really varied crowd. The founders of most of the leading dot-coms, leaders of all kinds of technology and creative businesses, film stars, movie producers, architects, scientists, authors, musicians. You name it. But pretty much everyone is remarkable in some way... and yes, that's what it takes to be invited. You have to prove that you're remarkable in some way. Oh, and it costs $4400.

This year's conference is sold out -- do you plan to increase the size of next year's conference, or are you trying to maintain a certain number of attendees?

We don't want to increase it beyond 1000 people. But we're working on lots of other ways of sharing the ideas that spring out of TED. There's the TED Prize, the TED Blog, the TED Global Conference held every two years... and stand by for Podcasts and other fantastic highlights from TED soon to be made available online.

What have been a few of your favorite moments or speakers at past conferences?

So many. Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google spoke a few months before their IPO, and were followed by Craig Venter announcing the discovery of millions of new genes contained in droplets of ocean water. The two talks symbolized the way that biology and information were merging and changing the world. Less cerebrally was the way 14-year-old pianist Jennifer Lynn improvised a piece on stage and triggered an outbreak of tears and rapturous cheers in the audience. Or Bono's remarkable talk last year on Africa, which you can still see on the website.

Is the conference filmed, and are there any plans to make it available on DVD?

It is filmed, but the DVDs are currently only for conference participants. Look out, though... We're releasing some of the material on the web this year.

What is your dream vision for TED?

It's no longer just a conference. It's becoming a global community of remarkable people who believe in the power of ideas to change the world.

What is the Sapling Foundation?

I founded it 10 years ago to look for smart solutions to tough global problems. It's the foundation that owns TED.

Is there a particular book that has had a significant impact on your life?

So many books... Sir Harold Evans' books on journalism persuaded me to enter that as a career. I love books that offer a profound new lens on the world: Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel, Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, Edward O. Wilson's Consilience, Steve Pinker's How the Mind Works and Lee Smolin's The Life of the Cosmos. One more recent book that's stayed with me is Robert Wright's Non-Zero. It's shocking to me that the ideas these books contain aren't understood by that many people.

Does spirituality play a role in your life?

I'm an idealist. I really think people can change the world... and I'm awed, beyond awed, at nature's scale, grandeur, and ingenuity. I love life's mystery. Science doesn't deliver all the answers... it still has no compelling language to begin to address sentience, for example. But the truths we're discovering about nature seem to me infinitely more inspiring than anything offered by the traditional religious myths. Alas, as a society, we haven't yet figured out a good way to celebrate these truths... or even communicate them broadly. I think that will change.

What's your favorite technology or gadget, and why?

Verizon's EVDO network card is pretty damn cool... Broadband to your laptop most wherever you are in the U.S. Will always revere Tivo and the satellite radio stations for freeing us from the tyranny of too many damn ads. Intuit's online shared database, Quickbase, is an underused treasure. It just keeps getting better and better. But I'm mainly shocked at how unnecessarily complex most technologies are. Everyone seems to develop them based on the assumption that users will base their lives around them and have the time to work out every detail. Time is the one thing we don't have, and the result is confusion, incompatibility and frustration.

What dream for the world do you think can be achieved in our lifetime?

I buy the theory that a combination of media, technology, economic growth and connectivity are creating the background forces that promote greater empathy among different people. It's a long-term thing, and the noise of the daily news hides it. Over a 50-year time horizon there will be a better understanding that the world's biggest problems and opportunities are shared among all of us. Life will be a great deal better for a great deal more people... but knowing our psychology, we may not even appreciate it.

(Interview by CThings Editor, Paul Horne)