What Does The Creator Of Term 'Metaverse' Think Of Facebook's Name Change?

Thirty years ago, an author coined a phrase in a novel for the first time. The phrase is now being used as the name for one of the largest publicly traded companies. Here’s what the author has to say.

What Happened: The 1992 novel “Snow Crash” by Neal Stephenson was the first to publish the term “metaverse.”

“It’s flattering when readers take the work seriously enough to put their own time and money into bringing similar ideas to fruition,” Stephenson told Axios in an email interview.

The comment comes after Facebook Inc FB announced it would rebrand the company to Meta and change its ticker to MVRS on Dec. 1.

“After all the buildup in the last few weeks, the Meta announcement has a ripping-off-the-bandaid feeling.”

Stephenson said science fiction writers have been given credit for their inspiration of real-life inventions.

“Good science fiction tries to depict futures that are plausible enough to seem convincing to the readers — many of whom are technically savvy, and tough critics.”

The writer credits working on a computer graphics based art project and working with a lot of code as the inspiration for the metaverse.

“It was difficult and expensive and I began to ask myself what would have to happen to make this kind of 3D graphics technology as cheap and ubiquitous as television was at the time.”

Related Link: Facebook Bets Big On Metaverse: Why Its Important For The Industry, FB Stock 

Why It’s Important: Stephenson said the key difference from his book and the real world is the revenue model.

“The revenue model — the way that the makers of the system make money — is more important than anything else because it drives the technical features,” Stephenson said.

Stephenson said people have drawn inspiration from “Snow Crash” in the past.

The author and creator of the term Metaverse has not spoken to the CEO and founder who set the conversation ablaze last week.

“I have never had any communication with Zuckerberg. I know a few people who work there but we don’t talk about the specifics of what they are working on.”

Stephenson said the book has been out for 30 years and in order to get paid for the idea of the metaverse he created, new intellectual property would have to be developed.

“In order to get compensation from FB or any other company I would need to sign some kind of deal in which I gave the company rights to some IP in exchange for payment.”

The author said he has signed intellectual property deals in the past but has not signed one with Facebook.

“Termination Shock,” a new book from Stephenson about global warming, will be released in mid-November.

FB Price Action: FB shares were up 0.16% at $330.51 midday Tuesday.