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 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.

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.