What is the metaverse?

什么是元宇宙？

Facebook plans to hire 10,000 people in the EU over the next five years to build a metaverse. The company announced as much on October 17th. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's boss, has previously spoken of his intention to turn the social-media giant into a "metaverse company." Plenty of other tech bigwigs have similar ambitions.

Facebook 计划在未来五年内，在欧盟国家雇佣 1 万名员工打造“元宇宙”，该公司在 10 月 17 日宣布了这一消息。Facebook 的首席执行官马克·扎克伯格此前就曾表示，他有意将这家社交媒体巨头转变成一家“元宇宙公司”。许多其他科技大亨也有相似的野心。

The word, metaverse, comes from "Snow Crash," published in 1992, the third, and arguably the best, novel by Neal Stephenson, an American science-fiction author. The book's main character, named Hiro Protagonist, delivers pizza for the Mafia. When not working, Mr Protagonist plugs into the Metaverse: a networked virtual reality in which people appear as self-designed "avatars" and engage in activities both mundane (conversation, flirting) and extraordinary (sword fights, mercenary espionage).

“元宇宙”这个词来自于 1992 年出版的小说《雪崩》，这是美国科幻小说家尼尔·斯蒂芬森的第三部小说，也可以说是最好的一部。这本书的主人公负责为黑手党送披萨，他的名字叫做 Hiro Protagonist。在不工作的时候，他会接入“元宇宙系统”：一个联网的虚拟现实。在这个虚拟现实中，人们会以自己设计的“化身”形式出现，他们可以参与各种活动：包括交谈、调情等日常活动，以及剑术格斗、为赚取金钱为目的的间谍活动等非同寻常的活动。

Think of it as virtual reality, but limitless. People could play games, but they could also talk, shop, stroll, chat, watch movies, attend concerts and do most things that they can do in the real world — and, crucially, the metaverse would interact with the real world in countless unpredictable ways. This fully formed metaverse remains a long way off.

你可以把元宇宙想象成一个没有任何限制的虚拟现实。人们不仅可以玩游戏，也可以对话、购物、散步、聊天、看电影、参加演唱会以及做大部分在现实生活中可以做的事情。而且，最重要的是，元宇宙会以无数不可预知的方式与现实世界互动。要实现这种完全成型的元宇宙，还有很长的路要走。

To Silicon Valley dreamers, this immersive, networked, three-dimensional world will eventually succeed the two-dimensional internet that exists today. It requires infrastructure and processing power that does not yet exist. But if you consider Fortnite's expansive world, Facebook's Horizon and other investments by big tech firms in similar products, the metaverse is closer to reality than it was when Mr Stephenson first dreamed it up.

对于硅谷的追梦者们来说，这个沉浸式的、联网的、三维世界终将取代现有的二维互联网，但它需要大量基础设施支持以及目前尚不存在的（计算机）处理能力。但是，如果你考虑《堡垒之夜》的广阔世界、Facebook 的 Horizon（虚拟会议室）和其他大型科技公司在类似产品上的投资，斯蒂芬森最初构想的元宇宙正在一步步逼近现实。

主编：桃子、噔噔

品控：桃子、迎迎

审核：噔噔

重点词汇

metaverse

/ˈmetəvɜːs/

n. 元宇宙，虚拟世界

词根词缀：meta-（表示“超越”）

词根词缀：-verse（指代“宇宙，universe”）

文化补充：一般认为，元宇宙是伴随着多种数字技术成熟度的提升，在传统网络空间基础上构建形成的既映射于、又独立于现实世界的虚拟世界。同时，元宇宙并非一个简单的虚拟空间，而是把网络、硬件终端和用户囊括进一个永续的虚拟现实系统之中，系统中既有现实世界的数字化复制物，也有虚拟世界的创造物。

as much

同样的事情，这一点（指上文提到的情况）

搭配短语：think as much / say as much（某人也这样认为/这样说）

例句：He strongly disapproved of the plan and said as much at the meeting.

speak of

谈到，提及

例句：The book speaks of that accident.

相关短语：nothing to speak of（不值一提，微不足道）

例句：I have saved a little money but nothing to speak of.

bigwig

/ˈbɪɡ.wɪɡ/

n. 大人物，要人

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