The metaverse isn’t here yet, but it already has a long history

PRI ESPL INT .SANFRANCISCO FES11 METAVERSE The metaverse isn’t here yet, but it already has a long history By Tom Boellstorff, University of California San Francisco, Aug 15 (The Conversation) Nattie’s metaverse romance began with anonymous texting. At first C would admit only to living in a nearby town. Nattie eventually learned Clem was a man with a solitary office job like hers. For Nattie lived, as it were, in two worlds the world of office tedium and an online world where she did not lack social intercourse. Texting drew them closer: annoyances became lighter because she told him, and he sympathized. Nattie soon realized she had woven a sort of romance about him who was a friend so near and yet so far’.