Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life

A Wired senior editor and virtual reality expert presents a captivating, candid glimpse into the future "realities" of this emerging technology: how we will use it to form previously impossible relationships, explore new frontiers of intimacy, and how it will forever change human connection.

Heralded as the most significant technological innovation since the smartphone, virtual reality is poised to transform our very notions of life and humanity. Though this tech is still in its infancy, to those on the inside, it is the future. VR will change how we work, how we experience entertainment, how we feel pleasure and other emotions, how we see ourselves, and most importantly, how we relate to each other in the real world. And we will never be the same.

Peter Rubin, senior culture editor for Wired and the industry’s go-to authority on the subject, calls it an "intimacy engine." While once we needed another person to feel the sensations of closeness, trust, vulnerability, confidence, and titillation, VR will give us the ability to induce these sensations by ourselves for the first time in human history. This metamorphosis, Rubin argues, is going to have a powerful impact on relationships that will ripple throughout our society and our individual lives.

A journey into this uncertain future and a glimpse at the cultural implications and promises of a new reality, Future Presence explores a host of complex questions about what makes us human, what connects us, and what is real. Offering a glimpse into the mind-blowing things happening in universities, labs, and tech companies around the world, Rubin leads readers on an entertaining tour of the weirdest, wildest corners of this fascinating new universe. Describing this book as "half travelogue and half crystal ball", Rubin will:

• Introduce readers to the creators and consumers of VR technology
• Show readers what an experience is like inside the current VR devices
• Explain how this technology will upend everything we know about human connection in the future

At once the incredible, inevitable story of virtual reality’s rise and a look towards the future of our fantasies, Future Presence is a deeply personal examination of what connects us, and an analysis of what relationships, empathy, and sex could look like—sooner than we think.

Virtual reality has been heralded as the most significant innovation since the smartphone. Though this tech-nology is still in its infancy, to those experts in the field, VR is poised to upend every industry and touch every aspect of our lives.
It will change how we work, how we experience entertainment, how we feel pleasure and other emotions, how we see ourselves, and, most important, how we relate to each other in the real world. 

Peter Rubin, senior editor for WIRED and the industry’s go-to authority on the intersection of popular culture and virtual reality, argues that this new technology will powerfully transform how we experience intimacy. While we once needed another person to feel the sensations of closeness, trust, vulnerability, confidence, and titillation, VR will give us the ability to induce these sensations by ourselves for the first time in human history. This metamorphosis, Rubin explains, is going to have a powerful impact on relationships that will ripple throughout our society and our individual lives.

By taking us on a journey spanning universities, tech companies, and porn studios, Rubin explores a host of complex questions about what makes us human, what connects us, and what is real. At once the incredible, inevitable story of virtual reality’s rise and a look toward the future of our fantasies, Future Presence is ultimately a deeply personal analysis of what relationships, empathy, and sex could look like—sooner than we think.

“Through his work as a journalist, Peter Rubin has already made a considerable impact on how both consumers and industry players should think about virtual reality. Now with Future Presence, he’s taking it a step further to get at the heart of why everyone – not just gamers, technophiles, or sci-fi fans – should be excited about VR and how it will change their lives.” - Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios at PlayStation

“With Future Presence, Peter Rubin gets at the heart of why everyone – not just gamers, technophiles, or sci-fi fans – should be excited about Virtual Reality and how it will change their lives.” - Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios at PlayStation

“We’ve seen the power of technology to bring people together. But VR is radicalizing the very meaning of togetherness, technology—even ‘people.’ This book is like talking to your smartest, funniest friend about technology over drinks at your local bar. And you might need a drink to ready your body—because the future is now.” - Aisha Tyler, director, actor, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author of Self Inflicted Wounds

“A cool, smart take on virtual reality. Peter Rubin approaches a deliriously infinite topic not only with brain, but with heart.” - Jaron Lanier, author of Dawn of the New Everything: Encounters with Reality and Virtual Reality and godfather of VR

“This book is like talking to your smartest, funniest friend about technology over drinks at your local bar. And you might need a drink to ready your body—because the future is now.” - Aisha Tyler, director, actor, podcaster, and New York Times bestselling author of Self-Inflicted Wounds