In the first half, George Knapp welcomed futurist Ray Kurzweil for a discussion on the merging of man and machine as well as his research into reverse engineering the human brain to understand precisely how it works. According to Kurzweil’s estimate, the brain consists of 300 million “pattern recognizers” which assign these trends into hierarchies.

This hierarchy ranges from simple patterns like shapes and sounds, at the low… read more

NW: How did your Nerd Life evolve?

RK: By the age of five I was convinced I would be a scientist/inventor. I always knew what I was going to be. I got involved in projects [that] grabbed my imagination and that usually winded up being a lot more complicated than originally anticipated. At the age of seven or eight, I built a puppet theater that had mechanical systems that changed the scenery. I got involved with computers at about the age of twelve. I built some computer like devices with electrical parts I would buy down on Canal Street in New York. You could buy these telephone relays that were primary electrical devices I could use to implement logical circuits.… read more

Among nearly 30 biz execs skedded to participate in “Startup of the Year” as mentors include: Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group; Peter Diamandis, chairman and founder, X Prize Foundation; Carly Fiorina, chairman Good360 and former chairman and CEO of Hewlett-Packard; and Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google.

Company also highlighted WSJ Custom Studios, which will work with advertisers to create specialized video segments with integrated… read more