-I'm in Las Vegas at CES --
the tech industry's
largest annual convention.
It's the most-connected,
most-surveilled,
most-overstimulated
place on earth.
Which is why I was curious
why this guy is here --
Dr.
Deepak
Chopra, wellness
and healing advisor to millions.
-I mostly come to
see technologies
about, you know, well-being.
Look at that one.
-At a time when technology
is overwhelming our brains
and straining our relationships,
I'd have though Chopra would
recommend unplugging --
you know, moving to a yurt.
Boy, was I wrong.
-I use technology.
I use wearables.
-Is that a --
-That's a Fitbit, yeah.
Which can now be incorporated
in your home, if you want.
I monitor my sleep.
I monitor my breathing.
I monitor my exercise.
I monitor my heart rate.
I monitor my heart rate
variability,
which is a measure of stress.
And as a result,
I'm able to change my behavior
and improve my health.
-He checks his heart rate.
It's 69 beats per minute.
-I can consciously bring it down
with a little breathing
and meditation to...
-Let's see.
-...
to 45 or 48.
And so now this technology is
helping me become a better yogi.
And the tech is not
just on his body.
I live in a smart home.
-So, you have the lights --
-Everything.
-You have it all...
-Yeah, I have it all.
-I think in today's age,
everybody's a tech guy.
You have to be, otherwise,
you become irrelevant.
-But wait, isn't all
this tech harming us?
-I think technology has created
a lot of stress
for a lot of people,
but that's not the technology.
It's the fault of the people,
who use technology.
-That isn't to say Chopra
doesn't have a tech diet.
-I have a morning routine,
where I wake up at 5:00,
I do my meditation,
yoga, exercise.
Then I spend about an hour
in the morning just focused,
mindful technology,
which means, I do all my posts,
my Twitter, my Facebook,
my Instagram.
And then, the rest of the day,
I don't use technology,
except late in the afternoon --
I catch up with my e-mails
and all that has happened
during the day.
And, again, it's focused.
For me, even technology
is a meditative experience.
Because when I'm focused
on technology, that's all I do.
-The Chopra mind-set on tech
is that we can --
maybe even must --
use it to elevate our humanity.
-You know, the fact is,
every time
a new development happens,
there's a school of thought that
this is going to ruin humanity.
-You're saying, let's plug
even deeper, which is --
-Let's do it wisely.
Let's do it wisely.
-You might be the biggest tech
optimist that I have ever met.
-I'm an optimist by nature.
-By nature, okay.
That includes technology.
-That includes technology.
-Chopra has a financial interest
in this point of view.
He's an advisor to a tech
company called Delos,
which brought him to CES to talk
about its smart-home software,
called Darwin.
It gathers date
about a home's air, temperature,
water, and lighting,
and controls it using algorithms
that promote health.
In a test they built in Vegas,
with KB Homes,
blue light that mimics
the sun helps you wake up.
Yellow light helps you
get to sleep,
keeping you in sync with
the sun's circadian rhythms.
-Ever since the invention
of the light bulb,
we are able to violate
everything that is possible
to violate to ruin our biology.
So now we have to resort
to technology to bring us back
to our natural state,
which is oneness
with the environment.
-Chopra thinks tech companies
will survive or fail
based on whether they're
actually helping us live better.
-Businesses that will survive
in the future are the businesses
that improve the quality of life
on our planet,
the quality of the environment,
the quality
of our relationships,
and the quality
of our social interactions.
-It's early days, of course.
-1990s is when the Internet
became public, right?
Not even 20 years,
maybe 25 years.
Where are we?
-We're so impatient.
-Yeah.
-It just accelerates.
Everything accelerates and
builds up on the past, right?
-But Chopra lays out
a remarkably specific vision
of how tech
will evolve our lives.
-I think technology's the future
of our well-being, as well.
The future of our well-being
and the future of technology
are tied in.
So, I've been personally very
interested in things like VR,
augmented,
immersive experiences.
I belive that in five years
from now,
when you go to see a physician,
instead of getting
a prescription,
you might get
a technology session
for reducing inflammation
in your body
or regulating
your blood pressure.
Technology is a part
of human evolution.
It's here to stay.
If you don't adapt to it and you
don't use it creatively,
then according to
Darwinian principles,
you'll soon be extinct.
-So, we better adapt.
-We have to adapt.
The question is, are we going to
use it creatively
or are we going to use it
destructively?
