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    The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality
    The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality
    The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality
    Audiobook17 hours

    The History of the Future: Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality

    Written by Blake J. Harris

    Narrated by Stephen Graybill

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    The dramatic, larger-than-life true story behind the founding of Oculus and its quest for virtual reality, by the bestselling author of Console Wars.

    From iconic books like Neuromancer to blockbuster films like The Matrix, virtual reality has long been hailed as the ultimate technology. But outside of a few research labs and military training facilities, this tantalizing vision of the future was nothing but science fiction. Until 2012, when Oculus founder Palmer Luckey—then just a rebellious teenage dreamer living alone in a camper trailer—invents a device that has the potential to change everything.

    With the help of a videogame legend, a serial entrepreneur and many other colorful characters, Luckey’s scrappy startup kickstarts a revolution and sets out to bring VR to the masses. As with most underdog stories, things don’t quite go according to plan. But what happens next turns out to be the ultimate entrepreneurial journey: a tale of battles won and lost, lessons learned and neverending twists and turns—including an unlikely multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, which shakes up the landscape in Silicon Valley and gives Oculus the chance to forever change our reality.

    Drawing on over a hundred interviews with the key players driving this revolution, The History of the Future weaves together a rich, cinematic narrative that captures the breakthroughs, breakdowns and human drama of trying to change the world. The result is a super accessible and supremely entertaining look at the birth of a game-changing new industry.

    Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateFeb 19, 2019
    ISBN9780062695307
    Author

    Blake J. Harris

    Blake J. Harris is the bestselling author of History of the Future and Console Wars, which is now a CBS All Access feature film by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. He has written for ESPN, IGN, Fast Company, The Huffington Post, /Film and The AV Club. He is also a regular guest on Paul Scheer’s How Did This Get Made? podcast, where every week he interviews some the biggest names responsible for some of the worst movies ever made. Harris lives in New York with his wife.

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    Reviews for The History of the Future

    4.5/5

    61 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Well written and I understood how the further looks like.
    • 5/5
      Over the past twenty or thirty years, virtual reality has become something of a joke. Many companies promised that they would be the one to make it a reality; all have failed. A California teenager named Palmer Luckey was determined to do something about it.In 2012, he turned the trailer he was living in, sitting in his parents' driveway, into a VR workshop. Teaming up with legendary game designer John Carmack, early demos of the headset were very favorable. Gathering a colorful group of fellow employees, they decided on Oculus as a company name. Thus began the usual entrepreneurial journey of ups and downs. Reactions to the Oculus headset from those who tried it, continued to remain very favorable (the phrase "game changer" was a common reaction. Their Kickstarter campaign was very successful.The company was eventually sold to Facebook for more than two billion dollars. The reaction of many in the hardcore gamer community was outright hostility. In 2016, Luckey did something very normal and reasonable (and very legal), but which created a public relations firestorm. Luckey became the most hated man in America. Things did not end well for him.This is a wonderful book. For anyone who has ever dreamed of virtual reality, this is a must read. It also works very well as a purely business book. Maybe virtual reality's time has (finally) come. This is very highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      Learning about the history of how oculus rekindled the fire of VR was such an interesting read. I never bother to write reviews but I wanted to write one for this. The pace was fast and the book is unputdownable. The author has done a great job of narrating the events, capturing the thoughts and emotions of the persons involved. The unapologetic description of the events that showcases the cesspool that is the mainstream media and the liberal lynch mob clearly exposes the retaliation and intolerance to opposing political views in the silicon valley.

      Though the youtube reaction videos of people using a VR headset were impressive, I was not too excited about it even as a gamer. Maybe due to my usual skepticism or lack of imagination. This book has increased my optimism about VR's future substantially even though the companies seem to be struggling to find mass adoption for what they are trying to do with VR. This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in getting a peek at the most probable future of human computer interaction and some of the events that led to it even if you are put off by the politics in the end.