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.