Sean Parker, the managing partner of Founders Fund and general entrepreneur, entered the tech world through less-than-noble means. In conversation with Jimmy Fallon at the inaugural NExtWORK technology conference, Parker discussed his origins in the tech realm and where he’s come since then: Helping design, fund and launch companies like Napster, Facebook and Spotify.

At 16, Parker was a “gray hat” in an underground group of cybercriminals who lived for the thrill of digital breaking and entering. “Gray hats are the ones who think they’re doing good, but they’re not,” laughed Parker. “You learn...

We’re very happy that Vint Cerf is on our planet.

That was the collective feeling at the NExtWORK Technology Conference after the co-father of the internet Skyped in to talk with Wired’s Steven Levy about the current state of the internet. Actually, more like the future. Cerf described his vision of the “interplanetary internet,” a new networking environment that would “deal with disruptions due to planetary motion.”

“We’re hoping it will be adopted by all of the space-faring nations,” Cerf said. “We’re quite far along in terms of tech capability to operate networks in space.”

On this planet,...