COSM A Technology Summit

Virtual Ticket: 14 Sessions for $499

AI, Blockchain, Crypto, and Life After Google

COSM is an exclusive national summit on the converging technologies remaking the world as we know it. For decades, George Gilder has written presciently about the technological revolutions shaping our world, from the microchip in Microcosm, broadband in Telecosm, and now the cryptocosm in Life After Google. What a world: artificial intelligence, blockchain, 5G, crypto-currency, autonomous vehicles, cloud computing, the biotech revolution, and internet commerce — all are converging in Seattle, and at COSM. The mission of the conference is to stimulate debate and deliberation amongst industry leaders on the unities animating these apparently divergent technology areas. The future meets here.

Sponsors

Speakers

Ray Kurzweil

Author, Inventor, Futurist
Editor
August 15, 2023
2
Ray Kurzweil has been described as “the restless genius” by The Wall Street Journal, and “the ultimate thinking machine” by Forbes. Inc. magazine ranked him #8 among entrepreneurs in the United States, calling him the “rightful heir to Thomas Edison,” and PBS selected Ray as one of 16 “revolutionaries who made America,” along with other inventors of the past two centuries. He is considered one of the world’s leading inventors, thinkers, and futurists, with a 30-year track record of accurate predictions. Kurzweil was the principal inventor of the first CCD flatbed scanner, the first omni-font optical character recognition, the first print-to-speech reading machine for the blind, the first text-to-speech synthesizer, the first music synthesizer …

Andy Kessler

Inside View, Wall Street Journal
Editor
June 16, 2023
1
Andy Kessler is the author of Inside View, a column he writes for The Wall Street Journal on technology and markets and where they intersect with culture. He won the 2019 Gerald Loeb Award for commentary. He is the author of several books including Wall Street Meat and Eat People. He used to design chips at Bell Labs before working on Wall Street for PaineWebber and Morgan Stanley and then as a founder of the hedge fund Velocity Capital. …

Peter Thiel

Technology entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist
Editor
September 4, 2022
1
Peter Thiel is an entrepreneur and investor. He cofounded PayPal, led it as CEO, and took it public; he made the first outside investment in Facebook, where he serves as a director; and he cofounded Palantir Technologies, where he serves as chairman. He has provided early funding for LinkedIn, Yelp, and dozens of startups, many run by former colleagues who have been dubbed the “PayPal Mafia.” He is a partner at Founders Fund, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has funded companies including SpaceX and Airbnb. He started the Thiel Fellowship, which funds young entrepreneurs, and he leads the Thiel Foundation, which works to advance technological progress and long-term thinking. He is also the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to …

Steve Forbes

Chairman and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Media
Editor
August 4, 2022
2
Steve’s newest project is the podcast “What’s Ahead,” where he engages the world’s top newsmakers, politicians and pioneers in business and economics in honest conversations meant to challenge traditional conventions as well as featuring Steve’s signature views on the intersection of society, economic and policy.Steve helped create the recently released and highly acclaimed public television documentary, In Money We Trust?, which was produced under the auspices of Maryland Public television. The film was inspired by the book he co-authored, Money: How the Destruction of the Dollar Threatens the Global Economy – and What We Can Do About It.Steve’s latest book is Reviving America: How Repealing Obamacare, Replacing the Tax Code and Reforming The Fed will Restore Hope and …

Babak Parviz

Venture Partner, Madrona
Editor
August 3, 2022
2
He received his graduate degrees from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. From 2000 to 2001 he was with Nanovation Technologies as a designer and product manager for photonic devices. From 2001 to 2003 he was a postdoctoral fellow in chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard University working on self-assembly, biomedical devices (he co-invented the method resulting in the founding of Claros Diagnostics Inc. (acquired by OPKO Health)), and organic devices. He has been an assistant professor (2003-2008), an associate professor (2008-2012), and an affiliate professor (2012-present) in the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Washington. He was with Google from 2010 to 2014 where he was a Google Distinguished Engineer and a Director at Google . He is the creator of …

Matt McIlwain

Managing Director, Madrona Venture Group
Editor
August 3, 2022
1
Matt invests in a broad range of software and data driven companies with a focus on cloud computing, dataware, intelligent applications and the intersections of innovation (where life science and data science intersect). He believes in the Learning Loop for entrepreneurs who journey from curiosity to triangulation and decision making. This leads to positive outcomes and ongoing learnings. Before joining Madrona in 2000, Matt was vice president of business process for the Genuine Parts Company (NYSE:GPC). He also was an engagement manager at McKinsey & Company, concentrating on strategy and marketing in technology-driven sectors and prior to that worked in investment banking at Credit Suisse. For more about Matt and lessons learned from 20 years of VC investing, traits of …

Gale Pooley

Associate Professor of Business Management, BYU Hawaii
Editor
August 5, 2021
2
Gale L. Pooley is an associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. He has taught economics and statistics at Alfaisal University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boise State University, and the College of Idaho. Dr. Pooley earned his BBA in Economics at Boise State University. He did graduate work at Montana State University and completed his PhD at the University of Idaho. His dissertation topic was on the Knowledge Acquisition Preferences of the CEOs of the Inc. 500. In 1986 he founded Analytix Group, a real estate valuation and consulting firm. The Analytix Group has performed over 5,000 appraisals in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Dr. Pooley has held professional designations from the Appraisal Institute, the Royal Institute …

Dr. Jay Richards

Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute
Editor
October 22, 2019
1
Jay Richards is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, Research Assistant Professor in the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, and executive editor of The Stream. The author of numerous books including the New York Times bestsellers Infiltrated and Indivisible, as well as award-winning Money, Greed, and God, and most recently, The Human Advantage.  His articles and essays have been published in a wide variety of national publications, including The Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Forbes, and Investor’s Business Daily on topics ranging from culture, economics, and public policy to natural science, technology, and the environment. The creator and …

Gilad Garon

Co-Founder & CEO, ASOCS
Editor
October 18, 2019
1
Gilad co-founded ASOCS in 2003 and has been spearheading the company as Chief Executive Officer ever since. Bringing with him extensive knowledge in mobile and telecommunications, he holds over 25 years of hands-on experience in international sales, marketing and product management. Driven by his passion for disruptive technologies and the re-definition of existing markets, Gilad steered ASOCS towards its focus on cellular virtualization and mobile edge clouds.Gilad holds several patents in the areas of signal processing and communications, and holds an M.B.A. in Marketing and Information Systems and a B.A. in Economics & Business, both from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. …

Nick Tredennick

Editor
October 18, 2019
2
Dr. Nick Tredennick is Editor of the Gilder Technology Report. He is an advisor and investor in numerous pre-IPO startups and is a member of technical advisory boards for several companies including Ascenium, Impinj, QuickSilver Technology, Terakeet, and the Venture X Group. He is on the editorial advisory board for several technical publications including IEEE Spectrum and Microprocessor Report. He is an IEEE representative to the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC), which oversees university accreditation for all engineering programs. He was a member of the Army Science Board for six years and is a registered professional engineer. Dr. Tredennick was named a Fellow of the IEEE for his contributions to microprocessor design. He has over thirty years experience in computer and …

Andre Fuetsch

President AT&T Labs and Chief Technology Officer at AT&T
Editor
October 17, 2019
1
Andre oversees the global technology direction for AT&T. This includes network planning, the company’s innovation road map, AT&T Labs, AT&T Foundry, and the intellectual property organization. His responsibilities include spearheading the design of the company’s next-generation 5G wireless infrastructure and software-defined networking (SDN) initiative.He’s also heavily involved in AT&T’s push into open source software and other open standards, and engagement and collaboration with the broader developer community.Since joining AT&T in 1995, Andre has supported and led several organizations responsible for software, systems and network architecture, planning and engineering, where he holds six patents in the field of network traffic optimization and database …

Bill Dembski

Mathematician and Philosopher
Editor
October 17, 2019
1
Trained as a mathematician and philosopher, Dr. Bill Dembski is a writer, editor, and researcher whose books and articles range over mathematics, engineering, philosophy, theology, and education. A board member and founding Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Bill’s current work focuses on the connections linking freedom, technology, and education. To that end, Bill has become an entrepreneur who builds educational software and websites. Dr. Dembski has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Notre Dame, and the University of Dallas. He has done postdoctoral work in mathematics at MIT, in physics at the University of Chicago, and in computer science at Princeton University. Dr. Dembski is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he earned a B.A. in …

Giuseppe Gori

CEO, Gorbyte Inc.
Editor
October 17, 2019
1
Giuseppe Gori is the CEO of Gorbyte (gorbyte.com), a blockchain research, development and innovation company. Gorbyte started researching distributed consensus models a few years ago and is currently developing GNodes, a new crypto-network that uses the first blockchain-based, distributed consensus protocol, called MARPLE. When MARPLE is used as a consensus protocol, all nodes participate in assembling the block, and in verification and security functions, without the need of intermediaries or monetary reward. Consequently, the GNodes crypto-network does not include incentives that push towards centralization. …

Gary Rieschel

Founding Managing Partner, Qiming Venture Partners
Editor
October 15, 2019
1
Gary Rieschel has had a successful career as a senior executive, entrepreneur, investor, and global business strategist in high technology. He has been a member of the LP Amina’s board since 2008.Prior to joining LP Amina, Mr. Rieschel was a senior executive at Intel, Sequent Computer, Cisco Systems, and Softbank Corporation.Mr. Rieschel created or helped structure several of the most successful joint ventures in the history of the technology industry. These included Cisco Systems’ Japanese JV (with Fujitsu, NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi, NTT, and Softbank, among others), Sequent Japan (with Panasonic), Yahoo Japan (with Softbank) and ETrade Japan (with SBI).Mr. Rieschel holds a BA in Biology from Reed College in Portland, OR, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. …

Eben Frankenberg

President and CEO, Echodyne
Editor
October 15, 2019
1
Eben Frankenberg has over 20 years of experience starting and growing technology companies. Prior to founding Echodyne, he spent 9 years at Intellectual Ventures – 4 years creating and overseeing IV’s spin-outs: TerraPower, Kymeta and Evolv Technologies as well as IV’s Lab and Global Good, and 5 years as the COO. Prior to IV, Eben spent 10 years at Onyx Software leading Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and the Americas as Onyx went from basement start-up to IPO in 4 years, and grew from 7 to 800 employees. He started his career as a geophysicist in oil exploration and has an AB from Dartmouth College and a MS in Geophysics from Stanford University. …

Yorke Rhodes III

Cofounder of Blockchain at Microsoft and Principal Program Manager, Azure Blockchain Engineering
Editor
October 15, 2019
1
Yorke E. Rhodes III is Cofounder of Blockchain @Microsoft and Principal Program Manager Azure Blockchain Engineering.  He is a passionate technologist with broad interests, always drawn to the next shiny object.  He earned a BS in Computer Science from NYU’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.  He has worked in industry for over 20 years, in enterprises such as Microsoft & IBM and startups in wireless, mobile, digital marketing & ecommerce.  At Goldman Sachs Investment Bank he built their first wireless internet ingress and advised bankers in wireless, telecom and media.  As a young developer he saw the beginnings of client server databases, obscure languages like ada, lisp & paradox and the birth of the internet. Blockchain piqued …

Lindy Fishburne

Managing Partner of Breakout Ventures, Founder of Breakout Labs
Editor
October 11, 2019
1
Lindy Fishburne is the Founder of Breakout Labs, the seed-stage program for hard science at the Thiel Foundation, and Managing Partner at Breakout Ventures. Lindy joined the foundation ten years ago as SVP Investments, after a career in management consulting, advising Fortune 500 companies on profitable growth strategies. Lindy has a deep understanding of what it takes to make it through the early days in business, having managed two start-up companies through rapid growth and eventual sale. She created Breakout Labs’ novel, revolving fund model toaccelerate innovation and re-define how early-stage hard science companies are funded. In2016, she and her partners, Hemai Parthasarathy and Julia Moore, launched Breakout Ventures a $50M fund to invest primarily in the Breakout Labs …

Carver Mead

Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology
Editor
October 10, 2019
1
Carver Andress Mead (born 1 May 1934) is an American scientist and engineer. He currently holds the position of Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), having taught there for over 40 years. Mead is an enthusiastic instructor, and he advised the first female electrical engineering student at Caltech, Louise Kirkbride. His contributions as a teacher include the classic textbook Introduction to VLSI Systems (1980), which he coauthored with Lynn Conway. A pioneer of modern microelectronics, he has made contributions to the development and design of semiconductors, digital chips, and silicon compilers, technologies which form the foundations of modern very-large-scale integration chip design. In the …

Craig Mundie

President of Mundie & Associates
Editor
September 26, 2019
1
Craig J. Mundie is President of Mundie & Associates. He joined Microsoft in 1992 and retired in 2014 as Chief Research and Strategy Officer (since 2007) and the Principal Technology-Policy Executive (since 1998). Previously he was the CEO and co-Founder of Alliant Computer Systems. He was co-Executive Chairman of Bridgewater Associates (2015-2016). He is a Director of the Institute for Systems Biology. He advises Microsoft, Exicure, Ironnet Cybersecurity, SomaLogic, OpenAI, and the Cleveland Clinic. Craig Mundie served Presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama on the NSTAC and was on Obama’s PCAST. …

Michael Kratsios

Chief Technology Officer of the United States, The White House
Editor
September 24, 2019
1
As President Trump’s top technology advisor, Michael has led the development and execution of the Administration’s national technology policy agenda since inauguration.Under his leadership, the White House launched National initiatives for artificial intelligence, quantum computing, 5G and broadband communications, autonomous vehicles, commercial drones, STEM education, and advanced manufacturing.Michael has represented the United States as the Head of Delegation at multiple international fora, including G7 Technology Ministerials in Italy, Canada, and France; G20 Digital Economy Ministerials in Argentina and Japan; and the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris.Prior to joining the White House, Michael invested in and advised technology companies in San Francisco. A South …