米利將軍提到“斯普特尼克時刻”，意在引起對很久以前的冷戰仍存在記憶的一代人的共鳴。斯普特尼克1號是蘇聯在1957年發射的一顆衛星。它在華盛頓引起了恐慌，認為蘇聯在太空競賽中處於領先，並導致約翰·F·肯尼迪(John F. Kennedy)總統宣布美國將成為第一個將人類送上月球的國家，在不到十年的時間內就實現了這一成就。但它也助長了核軍備競賽，這在蘇聯解體後的過去30年裡才得到遏制。
Facebook Inc plans to hire 10,000 in the European Union over the next five years, the social media giant said on Monday, to help build the so-called metaverse - a nascent online world where people exist and communicate in shared virtual spaces.
元宇宙（英語：Metaverse）一詞由前綴「 meta」(意思是超越)和詞幹「 verse」(通過逆向構詞法從「宇宙（universe）」得來)組成；簡稱：MVS;這個詞通常用來描述未來網際網路迭代的概念，由連接到一個可感知的虛擬宇宙的持久、共享的3D 虛擬空間組成。[1] 廣義上的元宇宙不僅指虛擬世界，還指整個網際網路，包括增強現實的整個範圍。[2]
這個詞是在尼爾·史蒂芬森在1992 年的科幻小說《潰雪》中創造的[3][4]，其中人類作為化身，在一個使用現實世界模擬的三維虛擬空間中與彼此和軟體客戶端進行交互。 [5]史蒂芬森用這個詞來描述一個基於虛擬實境的網際網路後繼者。 [6]類似於元宇宙的概念很早就以各種名稱出現在賽博朋克小說類型中，最早可以追溯到1981 年的中篇小說《真實姓名》。史蒂芬森在《雪崩》的後記中表示，在完成小說後，他了解了《Habitat》 ，這是一款類似於元宇宙的大型多人在線角色扮演遊戲。
The word "Metaverse" is made up of the prefix "meta" (meaning beyond) and the stem "verse" (a back-formation from "universe"); the term is typically used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.[1] The metaverse in a broader sense may not only refer to virtual worlds, but Internet as a whole, including the entire spectrum of augmented reality.[2]
The metaverse is having a moment. Coined in Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel, the term refers to a convergence of physical, augmented, and virtual reality in a shared online space. Earlier this month, The New York Times explored how companies and products including Epic Games’ Fortnite, Roblox, and even Animal Crossing: New Horizons increasingly had metaverse-like elements. (Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney has been discussing his desire to contribute to a metaverse for many months now.)
In January 2020, an influential essay by the venture capitalist Matthew Ball set out to identify key characteristics of a metaverse. Among them: it has to span the physical and virtual worlds; contain a fully fledged economy; and offer “unprecedented interoperability” — users have to be able to take their avatars and goods from one place in the metaverse to another, no matter who runs that particular part of it. Critically, no one company will run the metaverse — it will be an “embodied internet,” Zuckerberg said, operated by many different players in a decentralized way.