The word metaverse—a portmanteau of meta and universe—is often traced to its coinage by Neal Stephenson in the 1992 novel Snow Crash, which depicts a dystopian world where humans can interact with each other as fantastical avatars in a three-dimensional virtual space. (Silicon Valley proponents of the metaverse appear to have overlooked the hypercapitalist dystopia presented in the novel.)

XREF: Connects to broader discourse about tech companies adopting cyberpunk terminology while ignoring the dystopian critiques embedded in the source texts.

Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, loc. 401