It seems like everyone has spent the last year or so desperate to tell us what the metaverse is. Yet this week, Apple CEO Tim Cook showed that he still “thinks differently” by telling us what it’s not: “the future.”

As reported by CNBC, Cook told Dutch publication Bright that “I’m really not sure the average person can tell you what the metaverse is.”

It is a fair comment. Ever since Facebook renamed itself Meta, one thing that has become clear is that there isn’t much consensus on this.

Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg talks about it as a more immersive, VR-enabled version of Facebook. The success of Fortnite and Roblox points to a future heavily influenced by…