MIT MAS.S61 The Metaverse: What, How, Why and When

Ever since Neal Stephenson coined the term ‘Metaverse’ in his influential 1992 novel ’Snow Crash’, the word has been stretched to encompass all manners of shared virtual worlds, and with the recent business focus, the search for meaning behind this term has reached epic proportion.  Rather than trying to project it down, in this class we’re blowing it open to expose the evolving many sides of the Metaverse from different angles.  Things are most exciting before we really know what they are, and this is such a moment.  In this class, we’ll attempt to cover different components of what we see the ‘Metaverse,’ tracing it from its inception and prior incarnations, exploring its exciting intersection with the Internet of Things, and looking at its future.