Meet your digital twin, a virtual version of yourself
Ever thought of creating your own twin? Even if you did, was it going to live an entirely digital life? From cities to homes, we live in a world of digital replications. The concept was discussed in 2021. “As a copy of a person, a digital twin would — ideally — make the same decisions that you would make if you were presented with the same materials,” Jordan Richard Schoenherr, assistant professor of psychology at Concordia University, Canada, wrote in ‘The Conversation’. “While we might tend to assume that we are special and unique, with a sufficient amount of information, artificial intelligence (AI) can make many inferences about our personalities, social behaviour and purchasing decisions.” Digital twins already exist. By exploiting the Internet of things, robotics, AI and automation, they’re improving efficiency and reliability in many sectors, from manufacturing to health care. For example, a virtual patient is a digital model of a human body to test drugs and treatments. Expensive trials and animal welfare concerns won’t be major concerns. Digital twins of human organs are on the way, too. One day, you may have your virtual heart to thank for saving your real one!
Digital doubles coming
For humans, we’re not there – yet. “A human digital twin would incorporate a vast quantity of data about a person’s preferences, biases and behaviours, and be able to have information about a user’s immediate physical and social environment to make predictions,” Asst Prof. Schoenherr continued. “These requirements mean that achieving a true digital twin are a remote possibility for the near future.” But it shouldn’t be long. Renowned technology analyst Rob Enderle told ‘BBC’ the first versions of thinking human digital twins will arrive “before the end of the decade.” He explained: “The emergence of these will need a huge amount of thought and ethical consideration, because a thinking replica of ourselves could be incredibly useful to employers. What happens if your company creates a digital twin of you, and says ‘hey, you’ve got this digital twin who we pay no salary to, so why are we still employing you?’?” Prof. Sandra Wachter, associate professor and senior research fellow in law and ethics of AI, big data and robotics at the United Kingdom’s University of Oxford, understands the fascination: “it is reminiscent of exciting science fiction novels, and at the moment that is the stage where it is at.” She added that whether a person will “be successful at law school, get sick, or commit a crime - will depend on the still debated ‘nature versus nurture question.’ It will depend on good luck and bad luck, friends, family, their socio-economic background and environment, and of course their personal choices.” Prof. Wachter explained that AI still isn’t skilled enough to predict these “single social events, due to their inherent complexity. And so, we have a long ways to go until we can understand and model a person’s life from beginning to end, assuming that is ever possible.”
Thinking digital twins, then … ?
And after humans? The Earth, perhaps? That’s the stuff of science fiction! Behold Destination Earth. The European Commission is teaming up with the European Space Agency to make a digital twin of our planet. A complete digital replica will be ready by 2030.
Keywords
twin, digital, digital twin, AI, virtual patient, Destination Earth