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I'll also share some of the pivots that shaped my thinking. I grew up with a black-and-white TV, a telephone that plugged into the wall, and one-dollar-per-minute phone charges for any call made to outside our county. I listened to music on vinyl discs. At the age of twelve, I chipped in with my brothers to buy my dad the most expensive gift we had ever given him—a huge, early-stage calculator. Fast-forward several decades, and tech has zoomed ahead. On a recent April Fools' Day, my own teenage son jumped onto the ChatGPT craze to prank me, using it to draft a fake email from a major airline CEO restoring my coveted elite frequent-flier status.

The transformations we're seeing today are a direct result of pivoting. While all of us benefit from the pivots happening constantly in the field of technology, I'm lucky enough to see it personally at CES. Each year brings some new magic—aha moments spurred on by discovery, serendipity, and connection. Businesses get a chance to put their products forward for feedback and critique, new products and services are unveiled for the first time, and new partnerships are forged. It's pivoting in real time!

After many decades walking the Las Vegas hallways of CES, one thing is clear: The future isn't just about what we can imagine, or what it takes to bring those ideas to life. It's about how we can adapt and adjust along the way.

CHAPTER ONE

WHAT IS PIVOTING? THE CES STORY

A pivot is an intentional change in direction. Not more. Not less. It is not a change in who you are, a move away from your core beliefs, or an abandonment of your ethical principles.

Every pivot begins with a decision. We need to make good decisions to survive, both as individuals and as a species. What separates humans from other forms of life are the conscious decisions we make. Single-cell organisms do one thing well—they survive. More complex organisms, like reptiles, fish, and birds, make decisions based on instinct. Advanced animals adapt and learn, developing habits that enhance their survival instincts. Natural selection allows those who survive to bear offspring. These progenies have genes that increase the likelihood of their survival.

This cycle of life, repeated millions of times over centuries, passed on the most adaptive decision-making traits to every species, including humans. Of course, good genes don't help much in the face of big disruptors—including weather shifts like the Ice Age, or seismic or volcanic activity. Visit the centuries-old city of Pompeii in Italy and you will see how a sudden volcanic eruption can devastate a city.

But the biggest, or at least the most probable, threats to species on Earth come from humans. We overhunt, overfish, overeat, fight, and engage in destructive behavior. As humans tamed fire, we also invented gunpowder, dynamite, and nuclear weapons. Dangerous weaponry is not limited to explosives. Viruses, bacteria, and chemicals created by humans make extinction-level events increasingly possible.

At the same time, human behavior is accelerating other existential threats—pollution and climate-altering emissions, growing use of limited fossil fuels, the spread of communicable diseases, and more. To bring things back to the tech sector, cyberattacks, cyberbullying, ransomware, misused artificial intelligence, and a laundry list of other concerns keep me and many others up at night.

All of these threats started with—and are perpetuated by—decisions.

Most decisions are inconsequential. But a few are life changing. People make decisions to sacrifice themselves for the good of their family or community. A soldier throws himself on an IED to protect his fellow soldiers. On September 11, 2001, passengers of Flight 93 intentionally crashed their plane into a field to protect those on the ground from terrorism.

In other cases, small decisions to pivot can have monumental consequences. Most initial COVID-related decisions were small. Eventually, as the virus's impact and spread became more obvious, the pivots became larger.

HOW CES PIVOTED

The Consumer Technology Association is a nonprofit, and we serve an industry rather than any one company. More, there is no stock or equity—so most profits are plowed back into our mission to promote tech industry innovation. We do this through market research, public policy advocacy, and setting technology standards. (Without standards, electric plugs would not fit into outlets, radios and televisions would not get broadcast signals, and your devices could not plug into your computer ports.) And CES is the most high- profile way we promote innovation.