---
title: "The Paraverse"
categories:
- culture
content-tags:
- metaverse
- facebook
- language
---

When computer-based communication networks were new, it was difficult to describe how using them had a sense of _space_, as if you were not simply sending letters or telegrams to other people, but visiting a place together.

In 1982, William Gibson coined the term _cyberspace_ to describe this, borrowing the _cyber-_ prefix from _cybernetics_, which only 34 years earlier had been coined by Norbert Weiner to describe control systems. Directly or indirectly, he was using the Greek for _control_. So Gibson was, perhaps unwittingly, describing a place defined by control or governance.

_Cyberspace_ now feels old, but given that pedigree, it's especially understandable that Meta Platforms, Inc., née Facebook, have not embraced the term.

The _metaverse_ was named in 1992 by Neal Stephenson in _Snow Crash_[^ns]. It's a clever enough name if you consider the modern usage of _meta-_ to denote a higher level of abstraction. It's easy to imagine Stephenson considering it to describe the abstract world of  imagination while learning about and considering the universe _metaphysically_.  I certainly have used _meta-_ this way often, and am annoyed to see it become popularized as a trademark that will limit its linguistic utility.

[^ns]: _Snow Crash_ is a fine work of fiction, but his _Cryptonomicon_ is a masterpiece.

Since Stephenson is a rather astute user of language and uncommonly precise in his technology descriptions, I must suspect he was also considering the classical uses of _meta-_, which include _communal pursuit_ or _between_ but most often _following_. If I was going to PR-spin Meta Platforms, Inc.'s naming strategy, I'd bring focus to that first sense and describe their platforms as pursuing common goods. Given the character of the corporation and their founder, I suspect that if Zuckerberg put this much thought into renaming his $890,000,000,000 firm he was inspired by the classical sense that his metaverse is that which follows the boring old natural world.

I would suggest the _paraverse_ to describe their vision of a virtual world. Building on [_para-_](https://www.etymonline.com/word/para-) this would describe a space that is alongside our own reality, alters it, and feels a little creepy.
