After On, Rob Reid
After On, Rob Reid
5 Rating(s)
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
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After On
A Novel of Silicon Valley

Author: Rob Reid

Narrator: Sean Kenin, January LaVoy, Felicia Day, Patrick Rothfuss, John Hodgman, Tom Merritt, Jesse Cox, Leo Laporte

Unabridged: 22 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/01/2017


Synopsis

The definitive novel of today’s Silicon Valley, After On flash-captures our cultural and technological moment with up-to-the-instant savvy. Matters of privacy and government intrusion, post-Tinder romance, nihilistic terrorism, artificial consciousness, synthetic biology, and much more are tackled with authority and brash playfulness by New York Times bestselling author Rob Reid.

Meet Phluttr—a diabolically addictive new social network and a villainess, heroine, enemy, and/or bestie to millions. Phluttr has ingested every fact and message ever sent to, from, and about her innumerable users. Her capabilities astound her makers—and they don’t even know the tenth of it.
     
But what’s the purpose of this stunning creation? Is it a front for something even darker and more powerful than the NSA? A bid to create a trillion-dollar market by becoming “The UberX of Sex”? Or a reckless experiment that could spawn the digital equivalent of a middle-school mean girl with enough charisma, dirt, and cunning to bend the entire planet to her will?

Phluttr has it in her to become the greatest gossip, flirt, or matchmaker in history. Or she could cure cancer, bring back Seinfeld, then start a nuclear war. Whatever she does, it’s not up to us. But a motley band of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and engineers might be able to influence her.

After On achieves the literary singularity—fusing speculative satire and astonishing reality into a sharp-witted, ferociously believable, IMAX-wide view of our digital age.

Narrated by Sean Kenin and January LaVoy, with:
Felicia Day: NETGRRRL.COM
Patrick Rothfuss: Special Field Operative Brock Hogan
John Hodgman: Charles Henry Higgensworth III
Tom Merritt: voice of The New York Times
Jesse Cox:  Whistle Blowings Blog
Leo Laporte: voice of the San Francisco Chronicle

Advance praise for After On

“Enter a near-future Silicon Valley that is hilariously, creepily, mind-bogglingly fantastic, yet at the same time all too believable. It might turn out this way. No, really, it might! Along with After On’s diabolically ingenious plot, there are crazy-plausible web startups, delicious parodies of social media, and a surprisingly convincing theory of human consciousness.”—Chris Anderson, head of TED

“Reading After On is like attending a master class in nearly every major issue haunting not only the tech industry but society itself. Only the professor is also a stand-up comic with a perfect ear for the foibles of Silicon Valley’s most sacred cows. Part AI thriller, part arch social commentary, and part rollicking farce, After On will leave you smarter about just about everything the human species needs to work on if we’re going to outlive our own creations—and our obsessions with them.”—John Battelle, co-founder, NewCo, Federated Media, and Wired

“The future is already here—it’s just for those who read Reid!”—Steve Jurvetson, venture capitalist, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

“Rob Reid doesn’t write science fiction; he writes future history. After On is the best account I’ve read of how superintelligence will arrive and what it will mean for all of us. Hilarious, frightening, believable, and marvelously constructed—After On has it all.”—Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool

About The Author

Rob Reid founded Listen.com, which built the pioneering online music service Rhapsody, and created the unlimited subscription model since adopted by Apple, Spotify, and many others. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Year Zero, a work of fiction; Year One, a memoir about student life at Harvard Business School; and Architects of the Web, the first true business history of the Internet. He lives in New York City with his wife, Morgan, and Ashby the Dog.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Jane on June 04, 2017

I almost DNFed this several times. If I had it to do over again, I would not only not finish it, I would not start it. It took me over a month to slog through it. I really enjoyed Rob Reid's other book, Year Zero, and I'm fascinated by fiction about artificial intelligence and the Turing Test. But th......more

Goodreads review by Brenda on August 02, 2017

You almost beat me, After On. You were almost the first book I DNF'd for the first time in like three years. There were a few times where I was super close. But you know what pushed me forward? You told me I couldn't finish you. So I did, damnit. You can't tell me what I can or can't finish reading!......more

Goodreads review by Otis on February 27, 2017

A fun, humorous, fast-paced, and fascinating take on what happens when an AI awakens. In order to tell this story, Reid invents a fictional Silicon Valley company called Pluttr, which seems sort of like a mashup of Snapchat+Facebook+WeChat but with more big data about us all, so it’s able to really......more

Goodreads review by Andrew on December 15, 2016

Another rock star performance by one of my favorite writers. This novel reads like a shockingly familiar nightmare/daydream of an imaginary near future, while at the same time bringing us twinges of a shared past...very Meta. From a stylistic standpoint, Reid's writing is sort of M.C. Escher elopes......more

Goodreads review by Erick on December 14, 2016

Rob Reid's "Forever On" is SO GOOD! It's a must-read. Imagine if Joseph Heller, Michael Crichton, Andy Weir, the writers behind Silicon Valley, and Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors had an orgy. Their love child would be this book.......more


Quotes

“An extended philosophy seminar run by a dozen insane Cold War heads-of-station, three millennial COOs and that guy you went to college with who always had the best weed but never did his laundry.”—NPR
 
“An epic cyberthriller peppered with pop-culture references, metadata, and Silicon Valley in-jokes.”Kirkus Reviews
 
“It’s rare to find a book that combines laugh-out-loud humor and cutting-edge science with profound philosophical speculation. This is that book.”—Analog
 
“[Rob Reid] writes in a humorous and sarcastic style while unveiling a terrifying and frightening scenario that seems all too real.”—Associated Press

“Enter a near-future Silicon Valley that is hilariously, creepily, mind-bogglingly fantastic, yet at the same time all too believable. It might turn out this way. No, really, it might! Along with After On’s diabolically ingenious plot, there are crazy-plausible web startups, delicious parodies of social media, and a surprisingly convincing theory of human consciousness.”—Chris Anderson, head of TED

“Reading After On is like attending a master class in nearly every major issue haunting not only the tech industry but society itself. Only the professor is also a stand-up comic with a perfect ear for the foibles of Silicon Valley’s most sacred cows. Part AI thriller, part arch social commentary, and part rollicking farce, After On will leave you smarter about just about everything the human species needs to work on if we’re going to outlive our own creations—and our obsessions with them.”—John Battelle, co-founder, NewCo, Federated Media, and Wired

“The future is already here—it’s just for those who read Reid!”—Steve Jurvetson, venture capitalist, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

“Rob Reid doesn’t write science fiction; he writes future history. After On is the best account I’ve read of how superintelligence will arrive and what it will mean for all of us. Hilarious, frightening, believable, and marvelously constructed—After On has it all.”—Hugh Howey, New York Times bestselling author of Wool

After On is smart, hilarious, and properly cynical about our connected world. The story unfolds in surprising and fiendish ways, and while you’re laughing you’ll learn enough to confound a wily MBA, manipulate a board of directors, and maybe even outfox a superintelligence.”—Ken Fisher, founder and editor in chief, Ars Technica

“Topics like AI, neuroscience, quantum computing, and gene splicing are usually both a blessing and a curse: incredibly fascinating material explained super-boringly. After On manages to be an exception to the rule, weaving all of those topics into a funny, delightful story that’s full of surprises.”—Tim Urban, creator, Wait But Why

“Rips the lid off Silicon Valley! And what lies beneath.”—Stewart Brand, creator, Whole Earth Catalog