The metaverse is coming
You might have heard that Facebook is now called Meta because it wants to focus on the “metaverse”. According to critics, this is a cynical re-branding of a tarnished product. According to Mark Zuckerberg, this is the future. So what is the metaverse? “Metaverse” is the conjunction of two words: meta and verse . The verse part is easy: it’s a contraction of universe . Meta , in this context, has a similar meaning to metaphysics — “transcending” or “transforming”. Put them together and you get “something that transcends and transforms the universe”. Zuckerberg didn’t invent the word. It comes from a 1990’s cyberpunk novel by Neal Stephenson called Snow Crash . Semantics aside, what does it really mean? The metaverse will be a platform in the future in the way that the Internet is a platform today. Just as the Internet delivers services today, the metaverse will deliver services tomorrow — in 3D. The...