The History of the Future

Oculus, Facebook, and the Revolution That Swept Virtual Reality

By: Blake J. Harris

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

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.

©2019 Blake J. Harris (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers

Cinematic - Recommended for VR enthusiasts

Extremely cinimatic and dramatized - helpful for communicating VR. Impersonation of Antonov's character a bit racist.

true story of American dream what one believer can

inspirational but scary. real life example of how free speech even thought is being shutdown

Changed my mind on many fronts

Incredible story, very well-written and engaging. Does an excellent job of opening your mind to beliefs you may strongly hold. They'll make a movie of this, mark my word.

What an interesting dive into the resurgence of VR

extremely riveting book, Loved how they described the shady work of the daily beast and journalists as a whole today.

My new favorite book

This is my new favorite book, not just tech or business. Great listen. Great performance.

Always amazing to see how success begins...

Always amazing to see how success begins, but terrifying to know how easy it can be taken away by those who simply disagree with you. If you ever need to see a modern day version of facism at work, look no further, than the leftist driven agenda of Facebook and their mantra"believe as we do, or you will cease to exist"

Great Insight into Oculus

The research and insight into the creation of Oculus was fantastic. Especially if you are a tech person, a developer, a lover of VR, or a Quest owner. Really recommended!

Great Book

I loved the book. It's one amazing story. Especially, when you get to the FB acquisition and learn how they treated this kid! It really solidified in my mind just how nasty FB is towards those that don't think like them.

I see a bit of myself in Lucky...

I soared with his successes, crumbled. with his defeats, and see his story unfolding the same way in my own if I'm not careful!
Thank you.

Freedom of speech

What a great story. Teenage dreamer help bring back VR and created the company Oculus. Then bought by Facebook for $3 billion.
After the current events of Facebook about bad privacy issues, last presidential elections manipulations and closing of peoples accounts this book is more relevant today.