Legendary scientist, inventor, futurist, and all-around tech icon Ray Kurzweil is at the ongoing South By Southwest Interactive conference in Austin, Texas, where today he headlined one of the event’s most highly anticipated keynote sessions. So we were very, very excited to be able to meet Kurzweil yesterday afternoon for an interview with TechCrunch TV.

I don’t know about you, but when I get the opportunity to sit down and chat with someone like Ray Kurzweil in his hotel suite, I basically stay and continue to ask questions until he or she kicks me out. We ended up with such a wide-ranging talk that we’re breaking it down into two segments. In this first half of our interview, watch Kurzweil discuss why we need more young entrepreneurs, how today’s consumer app landscape proves his Law of Accelerating Returns, how education is stuck in the 19th century, why privacy isn’t as big of a problem as we think, and lots more.

Make sure to check back tomorrow for part two of our interview, where we get Kurzweil’s insights on why it’s important for entrepreneurs to get some sleep once in a while, what neuroscience research he’s particularly obsessed with these days, and his favorite web applications, among many other things.

Ray Kurzweil portrait photo credited to Michael Lutch via SXSW.com