หัวข่าว: "Pokemon Go" จับมือ Fold วาร์ปสู่ "จักรวาลนฤมิต" สำหรับนักล่า Bitcoin

Earlier this month (about 5 December 2021), I scanned through news headlines to see what happening in Thailand> I came across this headline "Pokemon Go" จับมือ Fold วาร์ปสู่ "จักรวาลนฤมิต" สำหรับนักล่า Bitcoin [ https://mgronline.com ]. It took me awhile to digest and understand the headline. I learned 3 words in particular: วาร์ป, จักรวาลนฤมิต, and บิตคอยน์. Feeling puzzled and curious, I looked up a few resources to learn about them. 

The word วาร์ป is a Thai spelling for warp and the English-Thai Lexitron Dictionary 2.0 [ETLD] says 

warp: VT. ทำให้บิดงอ relate:[ทำให้ผิดรูป, ทำให้ผิดส่วน] syn:[bend; distort; twist] 

VI. บิดงอ relate:[ผิดรูปไป, ผิดส่วน] syn:[bend; distort; twist] 

VT. ทำให้เลวร้ายลง VI. บิดเบือน 

VT. ลากเรือด้วยเชือกผูกโยง

 VI. ลากเรือด้วยเชือกผูกโยง N. การผิดรูปไป relate:[การผิดส่วนไป] syn:[distortion; twist] N. การกระทำที่ผิดปกติ relate:[การกระทำนอกลู่นอกทาง] 

N. กลุ่มเส้นด้ายตามยาว **mynote warp=เส้นยืน weft=เส้นพุ่ง in weaving (การทอผ้า)

N. เชือกที่ใช้ผูกโยงเรือ 

The word is not elaborated by the Royal Society (of Thailand) yet. So, it is only used in the ‘wild’. i think, 'warp' is read like 'war' with ending 'p' -- วอร์ป. 

The word จักรวาลนฤมิต is coined up by คณะกรรมการจัดทำพจนานุกรมศัพท์นิเทศศาสตร์ร่วมสมัย ราชบัณฑิตยสภา ในการประชุมวันที่ 2 ธ.ค.64: for the word Metaverse ("เมตาเวิร์ส"). This Thai word has drawn many comments from the public (see their facebook page "https://www.facebook.com/206167399441363/posts/4768763753181682/?d=n ). 

The word บิตคอยน์ from bitcoin also have ราชบัณฑิตยสภา definition: ชื่อสกุลเงินอิเล็กทรอนิกส์ประเภทหนึ่งซึ่งใช้เทคโนโลยีบล็อกเชน… (see their facebook page). This word is defined by a number of words which are not Thai words. In short, I cannot understand it with the RSTD Thai dictionary. 

What do you make of the news headline? Do you know, what it is about? 

My resources say ‘warp’ is made popular by ‘Star Trek’ series as in ‘warp speed’ (meaning ‘jump’ into extraordinary/beyond/faster-than-light speed. 

'Metaverse' was coined in Neal Stephenson's 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash; used Mark Zuckerberg's keynote speech at Connect 2021 and become a buzz word for a new frontier of ‘virtual reality’ technologies. ('Meta' is the new brand name in place of the much becoming negatively perceived ‘facebook’). ‘Metaverse’ is very much a new ‘fashion’ (word) for a (new) virtual (reality) world or universe (meaning much bigger than what we are in right now). The word is used in advertising ‘Meta’ (corporation) and one should be surprised that ราชบัณฑิตยสภา caught up in assisting ‘Meta’ to do advertising by giving a Thai (Sanskrit) word จักรวาลนฤมิต for it. (I think I support a comment for an alternative อภิภพ more. Other alternatives such as อุปไลก, or อุปภพ (compare to to German über-) appear to convey the ‘virtual’ or unreal nature of this entity better than จักรวาลนฤมิต.

 As for bitcoin a ‘digital money in a block chain’ (system), we will have to re-think about money. We used to think of money as เงินทอง (ของมีค่า ที่คนต้องการ). Then we say even a promise (สัญญา) (in paper - ธนบัตร) is money. Are we saying now, anything someone believes valuable ‘is really valuable’ (Well, what is valuable? What in demand is valuable - even it is a dry banana leaf. If we can convince people that ‘carbon' is valuable because we can buy and sell carbon, then why can't we convince people that certain digital record can be brought and sold at some prices? But you know, a day may come that electricity blackout may cause problems for computer systems and block chains, we would then ponder about ..ข้าวปลา คือ ของจริง..) 

'Block chain' (technology) comes in as a way to 'tell exactly who own bitcoins now and before now'. In another word bitcoins, eventhough being only digital that we cannot see or touch, have ownership that can be traced or tracked at all time.

There are rumours that Metaverse [facebook] may let over 3 billion citizens/users 'trade' using [meta]money (libra). We will be living in a virtual world (metaverse), socializing in augmented reality and spending digital money.

Now what say you about these words? And the world or verse we will be living in?

**edited 21:11 hr 28 Dec 20211