Community Conversation is a FREE monthly online gathering where we connect spiritual ideas to real life by talking about personal challenges we all share, difficult issues we all face, and how the ancient spiritual teachings of the yoga tradition offer practical guidance for navigating our way through life in the modern world.

This month we're going to explore the relationship between technology, AI, and yoga.

Smart mats are here, with embedded pressure sensors that your track balance and flexibility and evaluate your pose alignment via a mobile device.

Smart yoga clothes are here, too. Now you don’t have to worry about getting into proper alignment; your clothes will get you into it for you.

How far away are we from AI gurus and cranial implants that feed “enlightenment” impulses into our brains?

Not very far according to some futurists. With so much tech already established and plenty more on the way, it’s worth considering how the explosion of tech and AI in the yoga market will influence the evolution of yoga.

How does technology mediate the experience of yoga and yoga culture? Do we want our yoga practice to be a mediated experience (the same way we go to a live concert and watch the performance through our phones)? How is tech’s incursion into spiritual spaces changing what we think it means to be human? Or what we think spirituality is? When we’re suited up with sensors giving non-stop hands-on assists, are we doing yoga or is yoga being done to us? Does “yoga optimization” mean having a way to get the benefits of yoga without actually having to do yoga?

We'll explore these and other related questions in our next Community Conversation.