Metaverse was coined in Snow Crash as a dystopian warning, not a promise

Evidence

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.) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 401

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the origin and etymology of metaverse while noting its dystopian literary roots are overlooked by tech boosters.
• CANDY: A light, memorable irony: tech promoters adopted a term coined for a dystopian warning.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media: How Wall Street…, 401