Let's say that a function $d:S\times S\to [0,\infty)$ for a countable set $S$ is a metric in the limit if $$d(x,y)\le \liminf_{n\to\infty} d(x,z_n)+d(z_n,y),$$ $$\lim_{n\to\infty} d(z_n,z_n)=0, \quad\text{and}\quad \lim_{n\to\infty} d(x,z_n)- d(z_n,x)=0$$ for any sequence $z_n$ that goes to infinity in the sense that $(\forall x)(\exists n_0)(\forall n\ge n_0)(z_n\ne x)$.
We could require that $d(x,y)=0\implies x=y$ as well.
I'm looking for an answer to any one of these:
- Is this a familiar idea?
- Does some of the theory of metric spaces still hold for such functions?
- Perhaps there exists a "better" variant of this idea?