• Well, yes. Of course you’re right that “metaverse” predates Facebook. They’ve successfully co-opted it by now, though; Meta is what the average person thinks of when you say “metaverse.” Stephenson’s was also fictional, unless you’re really generous and use “metaverse” as a synonym for “the internet.”

    • @Valmond
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      21 month ago

      It wasn’t a fictional internet, but a 3D VR world.

      • In the books, yes. It didn’t exist IRL, and a poorly as it was done, FB’s metaverse was (is?) a real product.

        Facebook/Meta has never had an original idea; I’m not trying to give them credit for anything. There were other VR “worlds” before FB’s (Sony’s, for example, which was also a failure).

        I just found out that Steve Jackson Games actually owns the trademark to the name “Metaverse.” I’ll bet that drove Zuck nuts.

        • @Valmond
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          21 month ago

          So you mean we have to make a FOSS one now :-) ?