The man who coined Metaverse now says Meta’s glasses are creepy

Neal Stephenson speaks onstage during the 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals at Austin Convention Center on March 16, 2022 in Austin, Texas. | Getty Images for SXSW

Neal Stephenson didn't invent the virtual reality headset. But Meta certainly knows his name - in 1992, his seminal cyberpunk novel Snow Crash coined the phrase "Metaverse" to describe a virtual reality world experienced through VR goggles. It inspired many key VR developers - and in 2021, Facebook decided to rename its entire company to Meta to chase that metaverse dream.