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
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After On: A Novel of Silicon Valley
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
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
03/27/2017 Reid’s (Year Zero) slick, hyperactive, and flawed technothriller postulates an artificial intelligence emerging from the heart of contemporary Silicon Valley. Phluttr is a hot new social networking tool that uses advances in tech security to do things other apps can’t, so everybody uses it. Mitchell, Kuba, and Danna run a start-up; when it’s purchased and absorbed by Phluttr, their software happens to bring in the ideas that make that huge web of social connections become self-aware. It’s then up to them to help the new AI survive, thrive, and not wipe out or take control of the human race. Reid’s pop-culture references are spot-on, and his pacing is fast and funny, but the narrative is saturated with racism and sexism (presumably meant to be edgy and ironic but never actually funny or incisive), and political correctness is a punchline. There are so many layers of metatextuality and patter that the overall effect is of a howling void of self-referential back-patting. The satire occasionally rises to the level of clunky, but never further. (Aug.)
From the Publisher
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
Library Journal
04/15/2017 This dystopian novel by the author of Year Zero extrapolates the ultimate consequence of Moore's Law—that machines built to serve us will eventually rule us instead. Kuba, Ellie, and Mitchell are Silicon Valley denizens who enjoy a sniff of success when their start-up is bought by the founder of a highly successful company whose product is Phluter, a social media app wildly popular among the younger set worldwide. The source of its popularity, besides its frequent issuance of free drink coupons to members, remains a mystery, and a sinister one as top executives begin to succumb mysteriously. Kuba, Ellie, and Mitchel suspect the culprit is Phluter "herself" (so referenced when the computer program exhibits traits they find are essentially those of a teenage girl). Their suspicions begin to put them at risk, and the quest, if not quite the chase, is on to save humanity. Reid's novel is less an edgy cyberthriller than a clever exposition of how the cyberworld of social media operates. VERDICT The story line goes on, if not forever, at least far too long to hold most readers' interest. Lacking a cliff-hanger style or the flair of Isaac Asimov, and punctuated with mostly annoying ex cathedra author/narrator commentary, this is for those with time on their hands who trust their patience will be rewarded at some point.—Vicki Gregory, Sch. of Information, Univ. of South Florida, Tampa
Some people think all great books should start with a dare. And those folks can’t be big readers—because really, when was the last time you read a book that began with a dare? Well, this one does. And that’s not some ham-fisted gambit to position it as “great” because we just established that only half literates conflate opening dares with greatness. So it’s, truly, just a simple dare. And it’s this: I dare you to finish the fucker. (Continues…)
For nearly two decades, Jim Killen has served as the science fiction and fantasy book buyer for Barnes & Noble. Every month on Tor.com and the B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog, Jim shares his curated list of the month’s can’t-miss new SFF releases.
There’s a scene in Rob Reid’s After On that finds budding tech entrepreneurs pitching to their boss the idea of an underwear-sharing subscription box. If flawed, their reasoning isn’t all that outlandish: we already ask any number of companies to fetch our groceries, pick up our takeout, clean our houses, and walk our dogs. Obviously, […]
Robots, man. You can’t live without them (unless you vacuum the old-fashioned way), and quite often, you can’t live with them—at least, not without massive, horrifying, oft-accidental repercussions. That’s not to say all robots are bad. Quite the opposite. Sometimes, though, their massive brains work in ways that aren’t quite healthy—for them or for us.
