Description: 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. And let''s be real--you probably won''t. It''s 547 pages printed, after all. Which is to say, any number of "locations," "sections," or "litnodes" on your eReader. And its obnoxious length is nothing compared to the disquieting truths it reveals about a popular social/messaging/hookup platform that humanity already spends 11.2 percent of its online time engaged with. About who really built all that, and why. About who''s listening, and what they''re recording. And (here''s the part that may smart a bit) how terribly uninteresting they almost certainly find you. There''s also some truly scary stuff you just don''t need to know. About the February bombing in San Francisco. About how it actually saved lives (lots of them--and quite possibly, your own). And about how moronically close we came to nuclear war with China on a recent winter''s day (spoiler alert: not my fault). You don''t have to know any of this. And ignoring the hidden ugliness we can''t do much about makes life easier. So if you tend to avoid facts like the age of the kid who stitched your favorite blazer just outside of Phnom Penh; or how athletically a certain ex once cheated on you; or how painful and scary the last few days of most human lives are; then for God''s sake: Put. The book. Down. Then do yourself a big favor and catch a movie. A numbered sequel, say starring cartoon-men invented to distract tots during the Roosevelt era. You''ll find that plenty challenging, and much more fun. It''ll also be over sooner, leaving you free for more numbered sequels, or maybe some lite sci fi written for the bright teens and dim grown-ups we euphemistically call "Young Adults." Are you still there? If so, sorry if that sounded a bit mean. But we''re better off without whoever just stomped off. Those people offend easily and are always whining about how they feel "unsafe," or undercherished if their every clumsy kick, catch, and volley isn''t commemorated with trophies. I can''t stand those people. I''ll bet you can''t stand them either. So getting rid of them was worth feigning contempt for some of my own favorite things (pssst: two of the best movies, ever, in my view are Iron Man 1 and 2. Also: I read "Y.A." stuff constantly. I''ll bet you didn''t know that). Now that it''s just us, I applaud you for at least attempting to see this thing through. Even you probably won''t get there (those 547 pages, again). But if you do, I can make you three promises. One: I will never talk down to you. Yes, certain facts herein are hard to confront and accept. Certain others are plenty hard to understand. But I think you''re man enough, woman enough, or young adult enough to handle it all. So. No sugarcoating, and no dumbing down. Two: I''ll never lie to you. Everything that follows--however fantastical and hard to believe--is entirely true and precisely depicts the underpinnings of the world you inhabit. And finally: at the very, very end of all this, you will find a glittering prize. Books that end with glittering prizes are even rarer than those that start with dares, so lucky you. But please. No peeksies. With that, I''m almost done with you. And that may be welcome news! My tone can grate a bit, I know. It''s probably just a phase I''m going through. But I''ll give you your space now. That said, I will check in every so often. Sometimes when you least expect it, as the hit men say. And, of course, I''ll be back at the end, with that glittering prize of yours (and you thought I''d already forgotten). But for now, let''s begin our story with some quick opening praise for the women and men of Silicon Valley. Yes, yes; I know--"but those fuckers gave us FarmVille!" It''s true. And everyone''s awfully sorry about that. But at its best, the Valley remains an inspiring land, almost bewitchingly so. I mean, where else can a handful of misfits meet up in a garage, share mad bolts of inspiration, then mainline Red Bull, sleep under desks, and code on bleeding fingers until they hack together an agenda-setting product that will rock the world? And then register their millionth user in just weeks? Their ten millionth in mere months? And forge friendships and talents that will last a lifetime--all while getting vastly, shamelessly, pornographically rich? The answer, of course, is Austin, Seattle, Beijing, London, Oslo, Bangalore, Seoul, Nairobi, Dubai, Buenos Aires, and quite possibly Perth, Australia, among countless other places. But this sort of thing happens on a grander scale in Silicon Valley than anywhere else. And the clich is dead accurate: we''re designing the future here. We also designed the present, and you''re much better off for that. Snort at this if you must. But do you really want to go back to six broadcast channels, CB radios, typewriters, dominoes and checkers, rotary phones, and thermostats that don''t even speak a single word of English? Didn''t think so. So, yes. Silicon Valley did give us FarmVille. But across the decades, its countless startups have also rebuilt our world''s foundations. Some relentlessly advanced the microprocessor, enabling the digital wonders of our era. Others honed DNA sequencing, which cracked the human genome and will one day help to cure cancer. Still others pioneered wireless technologies that are finally patching the world''s poorest sectors into a global superplex of information. Literally thousands of Silicon Valley startups in these and countless fields have advanced humanity in palpable ways. And no matter how you cut it--however imaginatively, generously, even schizophrenically you look at things--Giftish.ly was never, ever one of them. Nope! Not even close. Giftish.ly was an unremembered startup in the wholly forgotten realm of "social gifting." Even the most obsessive tech historian would struggle to name the year when this concept briefly infatuated a luckless handful of able but misguided entrepreneurs. "Twenty-something-teen" is close enough. So what is social gifting? Or rather, what was (or, really, what wasn''t) it? Well, its boosters reckoned that billions of people neurally lashed to their Facebook newsfeeds would eventually develop an uncontrollable urge to buy shit for each other. Having done so, they''d want to brag about their purchases. The joyous recipients would want to brag right along with them, and a social gifting service would enable all of this. Imagine an inbox clogged with posts like "SAMANTHA just bought GEOFFREY a Giftish.ly Certificate for a MOCHACHINO!" and you''ve glimpsed the daring vision. Only time will tell if social gifting''s pioneers were dead wrong about everything, or merely (and this is a huuuuuuuge badge of honor for Valley also-rans) too early. Mitchell Prentice is considering this question as he anxiously awaits a response from the squawk box of the blank door at 501 Jones Street. Though he scrupulously keeps the opinion to himself, he now believes the prognosis is grim across the board. Almost as grim as his immediate surroundings--which is saying something. This may not be the city''s single most crime-ridden corner. But it''s a contender. And with every passing month, this whole putrid neighborhood sticks out ever more in the striving hive of hyperachievement that is San Francisco. Just blocks away, tech outfits have been drawing gaggles of six-figure youngsters ever since Twitter first colonized Market Street''s fringes (later followed by Uber, Thumbtack, and countless others). Yet here at O''Farrell and Jones, drunks sleep it off on piss-stained sidewalks, migrants mortgage wee paychecks at bulletproof windows, and gruff panhandlers ply their trade with menace. And then you have Mitchell. Mitchell Prentice. Ring, ring, ring squawks the box. "Answer the door," Mitchell urges, eyeing a sullen clutch of hooded faces midway up the block. A shadowed figure mutters something to the others, triggering laughter. Deep, sinister, and...mocking? He feels spooked and kind of shamed, and just then, a cop siren kicks in. Though a half block away, it sounds like an air horn in his inner ear. And this makes the perfect trifecta: frustration, embarrassment, plus a sensory jolt. So in an instant, Mitchell''s face numbs, and his fingers start to tingle. The timing couldn''t suck more. But on blocks this blighted, Murphy''s Law applies as strongly as that of, say, gravity. The neighborhood is called the Tenderloin--a word that once evoked rare nights at a cozy steak restaurant for Mitchell. These days it makes him think of a gory sore, raw and pus-filled, marking an otherwise hale civic body. Primal collisions of unlimited dollars with scant real estate are physically contorting every other neighborhood (here, a fifty-story co-op erupts from the earth; there, thickets of cranes sprout in a once-vacant lot). But the Tenderloin defies all gentrification. It''s like a superbug that stubbornly evolved in a hypersanitized ward until it could whup any antibiotic. Or maybe it''s more like a...native reservation? Yes, Mitchell could imagine the city council''s Maoists creating such a thing. The Tenderloin''s folkways and customs shall be preserved, they''d decree, so as to enlighten the spawn of the liberal elite on field trips--as when his own grade school visited Colonial Williamsburg.

Please Wait