metaverse

plural metaverses

1. InternetcomputingA hypothetical future (counterpart or continuation of the) Internet, created by the convergence of virtually enhanced physical reality and physically persistent virtual space.

   The metaverse is the convergence of two ideas that have been around for many years: virtual reality and a digital second life.

   2022 January 18, Brian X. Chen, “What’s All the Hype About the Metaverse?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 30 Apr 2022

   5 more examples

   Hiro walks straight through the display, and it vanishes. Amusement park in the Metaverse can be fantastic, offering a wide selection of interactive three-dimensional movies.

   2011 [1992], Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, →ISBN, page 36

   It is closer, in other words, to another science fiction vision, the “metaverse” Neal Stephenson envisioned in his 1992 Snow Crash. That particular moniker has not caught on, but many of Stephenson's ideas about what the on-line world can look like are driving a new generation of entrepreneurs to try to match it.

   1997 July 7, Zina Moukheiber, “The geeks have inherited the earth”, in Forbes, →ISSN, pages 354–356

   But now, with 350 million players who are used to hanging out in a vibrant, ridiculous online world filled with dancing bananas and cartoon skirmishes, Party Royale could be the experience that finally realises the idea of a playful, mass participation online metaverse.

   2020 May 15, Keith Stuart, “Fortnite Party Royale is the most fun you can have in the metaverse”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Mar 2021

   Video games like Roblox and Fortnite and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, in which players can build their own worlds, have metaverse tendencies, as does most social media. If you own a non-fungible token or even just some crypto, you’re part of the metaversal experience. Virtual and augmented reality are, at a minimum, metaverse adjacent.

   2021 July 10, John Herrman, Kellen Browning, “Are We in the Metaverse Yet?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2021

   In the world of Snow Crash, the metaverse is not viewed as particularly cool—it is necessary, because the real world has become so unbearable.

   2021 July 30, Brian Merchant, “The Metaverse Has Always Been a Dystopian Idea”, in VICE, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2024

2. archaicA set or the composite of all universes.

   A single-cycle universe comes to eternal rest. But further instabilities in the virtual energy domain may occur, and some of these may be potent enough to create new universes. The thesis of a metaverse giving rise to local universes is cogent, […]

   2003, Ervin Laszlo, The Connectivity Hypothesis, page 108

   Synonyms: metauniverse, multiverse, see others there