Many questions surround the metaverse hype, with major players like Epic Games raising $2 billion for their kids’ metaverse initiative, Facebook changing its name to Meta, and Snapchat trying to make a splash with their augmented reality glasses. Is the metaverse just a playground for technophiles and gamers? Is it just a fad or is it here to stay?

These questions are not unlike the uncertainties of people in the 1980s and 1990s about the Internet itself. news week published an article in 1995 by Silicon Valley tech writer Clifford Stoll stating that computers and electronic publishing could never replace physical newspapers or magazines. Stoll argued that hardware and software…