alt Hacker NewsDo you have proof of the etymology of Meat Space? I mean other than some AI generated slop?
My understanding is that’s a new term, unrelated to the context you’re describing.
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It's been used on UseNet since at least the early 1990s [0].
I think it comes from a Perry Barlow-esque feeling that Cyberspace is an improvement on the "merely" meat real world (perhaps even a proxy heaven on earth, cf. Platonism). Sometimes it is tongue-in-cheek, other times earnest (I assume for people who have found the real world (and their real bodies) a disappointment.)
[0]: https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-is-meatspace.
It's an old term. Here's a reference from the New York Times in 2000.
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/...
Your parent comments needless disdain aside, it was just a silly term used to refer to offline.
This sounded off so I looked into it, apparently 'meatspace' has been around since the early '90s as a derivative of 'cyberspace'.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/what-is-meatspace
It's been a term used on the internet for as long as I've been online.
I've known the phrase "meatspace" for decades now as an "opposite" of "cyberspace" from some of the CyberPunk Sci-Fi of my childhood, though I cannot at this moment name any specific novels it might originate from. It's not a terribly new term, although it may have only recently gained common enough usage as to seem new to those who hadn't heard it before.