Science fiction, when revisited years later, sometimes doesn't come across as all that fictional. Speculative novels have an impressive track record at prophesying what innovations are to come, and how they might upend the world: H. G. Wells wrote about an atomic bomb decades before World War II, and Ray Bradbury's 1953 novel, Fahrenheit 451, features devices we'd describe today as Bluetooth earbuds. Perhaps no writer has been more clairvoyant about our current technological age than Neal Stephenson. His novels coined the term metaverse, laid the conceptual groundwork for cryptocurrency, and imagined a geoengineered planet. A core element of one of his early novels, The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, is a magical book that acts as a personal tutor and mentor for a young girl, adapting to her learning style--in essence, it is a personalized and ultra-advanced chatbot.

Metaverse is composed of two words: Meta Verse. To better understand the complex topic of the metaverse, it is worth looking at the etymological origin of the ancient Greek word "meta". Its original meaning is "beyond," transcending, "after," or "behind". Metaphysics, Metacognition are some words that use the prefix "Meta". Metacognition, for example, means to have an awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Sci-fi writer William Gibson says the best way to imagine new technologies and how they could affect society is not through current expertise but by talking to "either artists or criminals." Sci-fi writer William Gibson says the best way to imagine new technologies and how they could affect society is not through current expertise but by talking to "either artists or criminals." Like a lot of science fiction fans, I read William Gibson's visionary novel Neuromancer not long after it came out in 1984. It painted a dystopian world where people spent most of their time on computers communicating across networks in "cyberspace." When I read it, I thought it was an engaging fantasy.