The Greeks put the 'meta' in 'metaverse'
In English, a metaphor is a figure of speech that asserts one thing 鈥渋s鈥� another, describing or making a claim about the first thing in a vivid, memorable way: 鈥淵ou are my rock.鈥� In Greek, metaphoreis are the people who move your furniture. The prefix meta- (which comes from Greek) here means 鈥渃hange, transformation, substitution鈥� and phora 鈥渂earer.鈥� The English word transports one thing into another, linguistically; the Greek transports things physically. 聽
Meta has been in the news recently, because Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta would be the new name of Facebook, the company he founded and runs. The new moniker reflects a change in the company鈥檚 focus, from social media in which people share aspects of their actual, embodied life, to the metaverse, 鈥渢he next evolution of social connection,鈥� according to the website.
Science fiction writer Neal Stephenson coined the term metaverse in his novel 鈥淪now Crash,鈥� published in 1992. He imagined a virtual world on top of our real one. Right now, the metaverse exists only in bits and pieces 鈥� you can put on a virtual reality headset and play a game, or experience augmented reality in which a computer-generated image is superimposed on what you see through your phone 鈥� as in the popular game Pok茅mon Go 鈥� or a pair of 鈥渟mart glasses.鈥� But the company formerly known as Facebook wants to 鈥渉elp bring the metaverse to life,鈥� hence the rebrand. 聽 聽
The meta- of metaverse has a different sense from that of metaphor. It means 鈥渁bove, beyond, at a higher level,鈥� as in metaethics. Ethics involves questions of 鈥渨hat practices are right and wrong, and what our obligations to other people or future generations are,鈥� according to philosopher Catherine Wilson; metaethics聽takes a step back and looks at the discipline itself, what it means to think about ethics. Likewise, the metaverse is 鈥渁bove鈥� or 鈥渂eyond鈥� the actual universe we inhabit.聽
As an adjective, meta has become聽a disparaging synonym for 鈥渟elf-referential.鈥� A meme about memes is meta. A movie about people making a movie about movies is definitely meta. 鈥淢eta鈥� does not automatically equal 鈥渄eep,鈥� as pop culture is quick to point out. Too much self-referentiality might get shut down with a 鈥淲hoa, that鈥檚 so meta.鈥� 聽 聽
Add a 鈥渢鈥� and you get metta, an unrelated homophone (a word that sounds the same). In Pali, the original language of many Buddhist texts, metta is 鈥渂enevolence鈥� or 鈥渓ovingkindness.鈥� Buddhists and secular meditators practice metta meditation, in which they wish well to outward-expanding layers of people, from themselves, to their friends, to their enemies, and to the whole world.聽 聽
