Update, 2/12: Bumped up for weekend conversation!
With so many definitions of the Metaverse swirling around, and some even asserting that there is no agreed upon definition, I did something totally radical: Went back to Neal Stephenson’s Snowcrash, found all the novel’s references to the Metaverse, and created a definition that’s based directly on those passages.
Distilled to under 300 characters (so that it might be more easily tweeted), here is a definition that captures as much as possible Stephenson's original conception:
The Metaverse is a vast, immersive virtual world simultaneously accessible by millions of users through VR and other devices, highly customizable avatars and powerful experience creation tools. It is integrated with the real world economy and compatible with external technology.
I first read Snowcrash decades ago. Coming back to it now, I’m struck by how highly specific it is about what the Metaverse is, and how it operates — up to and including specs on its size, how its virtual real estate is managed, and so on (and on, and on). Stephenson’s conception of the Metaverse has more specificity than many actual Silicon Valley pitch decks I’ve read.
So it’s not just the term “Metaverse” that came from Snowcrash, but the whole concept. It’s rather strange that so many reporters and analysts have declared that the Metaverse is a mysterious idea no one quite knows about, or that it doesn't exist, when its original conception — from an actual famous, influential, acclaimed novel – is laid out in great detail.
What’s more, the Metaverse from Snowcrash very much has a direct relation to the technology that companies have been building for decades. It’s why Oculus’ Chief Science Officer once announced — nearly a decade ago — that they were creating "The Path to the Metaverse"; it’s why Linden Lab’s founders referenced it when evolving early versions of Second Life. For that matter, Stephenson himself acknowledges that Meta and other companies are trying to build his original concept; he even has opinions about how the Metaverse should evolve in the real world.
Related to that — and this is even more key — Stephenson’s Metaverse resembles many platforms that exist right now, both in their technical functionality, and how they operate on an experiential level.
Let us turn, dearly beloved, to the original text from whence our definition came:
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