News about Neal Stephenson

Forces are encouraged to investigate the possibility of online units for such as'reporting offences, filing lawsuits, or hosting virtual community meetings.' Interpol warns that agents should remain "virtual presence in the metaverse" to avoid sex offenses, child violence, and even terrorism in a White Paper warning of a surge in crime in virtual reality games. The term metaverse refers to 3D virtual worlds in which users are depicted as online celebrities named avatars. The Mail revealed earlier this month that a UK police force is investigating a 'virtual rape' in the metaverse for the first time.

The year's word, which is loosely defined as it incorporates slang terms, has been described as capturing "the mood and ethos of the last year." Metaverse was first introduced in Neal Stephenson's 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, but the last year has seen significant increases in usage, mainly as a result of Mark Zuckerberg's new Facebook invention.