Samuel Woolley - The Reality Game: How the Next Wave of Technology Will Break the Truth

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W RITING A BOOK IS WORK AND DONT LET ANYONE TELL you differently. Luckily, or maybe unluckily, for me, I had just finished writing my dissertation when I started doing this one. During that last project, I tried every which way to avoid writing. Its Thursday, Id tell myself. Or else something like, Ive been traveling for work, I deserve a break and a stiff drink. No need to write today. Eventually, though, I forced myself to write for two hours, from 8:00 A.M . to 10:00 A.M ., every day. I stuck with it most days, though certainly not all of them. Im only human, after all, and not one of the tireless AI bots that generate content endlessly, as youll read about in what follows. I took that two-hour daily writing practice Id followed while writing my dissertation and applied it to this book project. I still had to spend whole weeks writing here and there, and I had to be fiercely protective of my writing time for a very long period. With this in mind, the first people I want to thank are my wife and best friend, Samantha, and my family: Mum, Dad, Oliver, Justin, Morris, Mathilda, and Basket as well as the Woolley, Donaldson, Shorey, Joens, Bossenger, Loor, and Westlund families. Thanks also to my dear friends: Joe, Ike, Anjuli, Peter, Nick, Basket, Josh, Ayda, Rick, Zach, Doug, Mel, Carleigh, Patrick, and Trent. Thank you for putting up with me spending so much time chained to my desk typing away at the computer. Thank you for putting up with me repeatedly asking you what you thought about different uses of virtual reality or ways of manipulating social media. And thank you especially for supporting me, loving me, and helping me to grow. To my colleagues and collaborators, thank you so much for your perseverance, hard work, and comradery. I would be nothing without the people with whom Ive learned to do research. In a way, I grew up to be an actual functioning adult among these people. It certainly took a while. Thank you, in particular but in no particular order, to Nick Monaco, Phil Howard, Lisa Maria Neudert, Samantha Bradshaw, Rob Gorwa, Katie Joseff, Marina Gorbis, Ashley Hemstreet, Matthew Adeiza, Tim Hwang, Doug Guilbeault, Gina Neff, Kirsten Foot, Benjamin Mako Hill, Christine Harold, Ryan Calo, Dan Newman, Ann Ravel, Hamsini Sridharan, danah boyd, Kate Crawford, Camille Francois, Ben Nimmo, Lori McGlinchey, Chancellar Williams, Kelly Born, Anamitra Deb, Joan Donovan, Adam Ellick, Craig Silverman, Karen Kornbluh, Nate TeBluntenhuis, Becca Lewis, Brittan Heller, Daniel Kelly, Talia Stroud, Mike Ananny, Michael McFaul, Nate Persily, Brandie Nonnecke, Stephen Reese, Jay Bernhardt, Kathleen McElroy, and anyone else that I have forgotten here. It is through your mentorship, collaboration, trust, and advice that I am able to do the things I do. Without you, this book would not exist. Thanks also to the European Research Council and the National Science Foundation for supporting early research. Finally, thank you to my editor, Ben Adams, my publisher, PublicAffairs, and my agent, Chris Parris-Lamb. Thanks for taking a chance on me in this game we call reality.