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The History of the Future
- Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 17 hrs and 38 mins
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The History of the Future
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Summary
The dramatic, larger-than-life true story behind the founding of Oculus and its quest for virtual reality, by the best-selling 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 video game legend, a serial entrepreneur, and many other colorful characters, Luckey’s scrappy start-up kick-starts 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 never-ending twists and turns - including an unlikely multibillion-dollar acquisition by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg that shakes up the landscape in Silicon Valley and gives Oculus the chance to forever change our reality.
Drawing on more than 100 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.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Arvind Juneja
- 14-07-22
Inspiring and demotivating in the same time
You need to have some distance for this one sided story, but given ive worked with the industey it all sounds too real and painful.
Im glad i gave it all those 17 hours of my time. I feel there were some insights im going to use
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Francis L.
- 07-11-21
Gripping story and credit to the narrator
Nothing beats a real story, that turns and twist at every corner. The American dream is very much alive in this extraordinary experience of Palmer Lucky.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Steph
- 12-11-19
A must read for all VR enthusiasts
The story of Oculus I already knew in a broad strokes manner, but this book fills in the gaps and expands the narrative nicely.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Hirsute Henry
- 07-03-19
Fascinating with incredible access
I've got to say I'm just blown away by the access the author got and the under the hood (bonnet for me!) view we get of Oculus. I run a business in VR and this has filled in so many gaps to a story I saw from a far. Loved this.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Andrew Poyser
- 19-01-22
Really eye opener
I’ve always been a massive fan of VR and oculus I owned a DK2 it was a great invention and to see some of the developers software for the rift was brilliant, this book put everything in perspective on how lucky Parmer was the founder of oculus and the other team of developers. The buy out of oculus by Facebook is well explained but not surprising on how it was done with the hidden agenda. I’d recommend this book to anyone thats had an interest in VR and those that don’t. Recommended.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- jon
- 10-03-22
not as exciting as the title suggests
the first few chapters were good but turns into a biography of Palmer lucky
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jaanus
- 25-12-22
2/3 great story, end ruined by low politics.
most of book is real nice, but last half is mess. Trumpism today is real failure with elon and gang
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Stephen
- 20-02-19
Does not live up to Console Wars
This felt like nothing other than a lacklustre cash grab following the fantastically written Console Wars.
While the book offers some interesting insight, most of it is just simply hollow, uninteresting information that really was not interesting to listen to. Anyone interested in Facebooks acquisition of Oculus could find out the key information online and spare themselves the unnecessary additives found in this book.
Very very disappointing.
Performance by narrator was good.
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1 person found this helpful