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Metaverse: what it is and why the original creator dissociates from Meta (formerly Facebook)

Metaverse. We will hear about this in the coming years and indeed, it will be one of the hottest topics. But what is a metaverse of grace? How was it born and above all who coined this term? Many (the younger ones surely) will think it is a "new invention" of Meta (formerly Facebook) but in reality this is not the case. The idea came from Neal stephenson in the nineties. So let's go and see, based on his works, what this concept is and why it has nothing to do with Mark Zuckerberg's project.

What is the metaverse and how did it come about? Let's answer these questions and see how its creator has nothing to do with Zuckerberg.

"Metaverse“, Is the term used by Facebook to define its next steps in building a virtual universe. This will work as "the next version of the Internet". To get a clear idea of ​​what Mark Zuckerberg means, just watch the film Ready Player One (but reading the novel is even better). As we anticipated, the concept was created about thirty years ago by a man called Neal Stephenson who, a few days ago, had his say on the blue colossus project:

Since there seems to be a growing confusion on this topic: I have nothing to do with everything FB is doing regarding the Metaverse, other than the obvious fact that they are using a term I coined in Snow Crash. There has been no communication between me and FB and no business relationship

The author of Snow crash, which incidentally is the novel where Neal Stephenson first mentioned the word in question, wanted to distance himself. There is nothing strange about this: Stephenson's books have always had one strongly subversive component and opposed to large companies. For example, take works such as Cryptonomicon o Anathema

But if you think that the product created by Neal was something born as a revolutionary, you are very wrong. Years ago, back in 2017, he himself declared who was just "inventing shit". Therefore, the metaverse as it arose does not derive from any rigorous research. However, Stephenson's metaverse and the one intended by Meta, formerly Facebook, arise from a common idea.

metaverse
Mark Zuckerberg with virtual reality (AR) glasses

Stephenson's metaverse is a familiar environment for its users, a 216-kilometer road in the shape of a spherical planet. A company owns it and its completely empty space is up for sale so that its customers can do whatever they want. Access to the metaverse is fully controlled by a television company cable which has a monopoly on information and communications. Well, this is the reality of Zuckerberg's project.

But if you like, the concept of metaverse was born even earlier, in the 70s. Writer W, years before Stephenson, he coined the term cyberspace in his novel "burning chrome". However, the difference between the two "lines" lies in their tangibility. While Gibson's is represented more as an abstract and mental projection, Stephenson's is much more tangible. A kind of parallel life.

But having said that, what repercussions will it have on the society of the future? It is not up to us to say, but we can assume that, as in the novel "Ready Player One"of Ernest Cline, one of the most obvious things will be thehabituation of the individual from an alternative reality better than the real one. Digital zombies, as stated by the University of Sydney who cannot recognize the true from the false. To quote a successful Italian singer-songwriter, we will come to believe that "this life is fake, like what passes for real on the web". Indeed, we leave you with a song called "infinity”Which describes the current and future society well.

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Gianluca Cobucci
Gianluca Cobucci

Passionate about code, languages ​​and languages, man-machine interfaces. All that is technological evolution is of interest to me. I try to divulge my passion with the utmost clarity, relying on reliable sources and not "on the first pass".

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