Artists and Inventors Plot to save the World

It’s quite a family, as it includes Murray Gell-Mann, the Nobel laureate in physics; Paul Simon, the songwriter; Richard Branson, the Virgin Group magnate; and the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The occasion is the annual TED conference, named for the convergence of technology, entertainment and design— with a dash of social activism thrown in recently as well. It is expected to draw 1,200 people to Monterey, Calif., starting Wednesday.
Mr. Anderson, a former magazine publisher, took over the TED conference from its founder, Richard Saul Wurman, a graphic designer who presided over the stage like a vaudeville showman. He called it the “dinner party I always wanted to have but couldn’t.” He filled the program with a collection of stars from various fields, like the musician Herbie Hancock, the architect Frank Gehry and the software tycoon Bill Gates.
Mr. Anderson (not the editor of Wired of the same name who wrote the book “The Long Tail”) is as introverted and nerdy as Mr. Wurman is boisterous.
Mr. Anderson, 50, has changed TED from being a party to something blending a graduate seminar and a revival meeting. Mr. Wurman’s passions have been infused with a sense of social purpose. The art being discussed is likely to be photography of genocide victims; the architecture, environmentally sustainable AIDS clinics; and the technology, water-purification systems.


Where Artists and Inventors Plot to Save the World - New York Times