The
popular over-use of the prefix
meta- has caused more
etymological pain in the ass than almost anything else. For one thing, it
came out a few
decades ago as a
pop science term, which means that
by now most people
think they know what it means, rendering meta- words
almost completely useless for purposes of
actual communication.
"Meta-"
expresses a
sort of redundancy--or perhaps I should say "
recursiveness"--that really applies to
thought only. You can't
actively DO a
meta-thing; at least not now, not by
normal routes; if you're a
Zen Master I can't speak for you. So if I'm studying
how things move, I'm studying
physics; but if you're studying how
physics moves, you're studying
metaphysics. Meta-thought, which is effectively
thinking about how thinking works, is commonly called
Philosophy. Well...
Psychology and
neurobiology sometimes vie for pieces of
that pie, but they (rightly)
rarely get it. According to the
original rules for things like meta-thinking and meta-physics, Philosophy is the only
science that can operate ONLY on a
meta level.
So you see what a
mess some goofball tossing out the word "Metaverse" has caused. I wish people would
think before they
invent these words; or at least
try a little harder to explain them when they do. So now we have a
Uni-Verse, directly translated as the "One Turn", something we've
never seen and have
no solid information on, but that we nonetheless termed "that
biggest thing"; whatever the
whole trip around turns out to be
for. ONE Turn.
And then--splat--we get metaverse thrown at us. The
turning--the ONE turn--of the Universe isn't good enough for us; now we have to have a Turn that Turns The Turn.
What the fuck would that be, you may ask? Well, since I think
Philosophy is probably ALL that's
qualified to field that question, I'll use it and try. It would be the thing that
Moved the
Prime Mover, whatever that was. The thing that
gave birth to God. The Impetus Before The Thought Before The Action That Started It All.
There.
That sucked to have to think about, didn't it? That's what we
get. That's what
happens when people think they're being
clever or
expanding our horizons--they invent words
so abstract that the mere
saying of them pushes our
brains right out
into the cold, where there's
nothing whatsoever to stand on.
Then again, those of you with the
gumption to
ignore Philosophy probably don't have my
blistering dislike of such
orphan terminology, do you? Oh well...