Why you may have a thinking digital twin within a decade

Image source, Getty Images

A lot of us have been told by a friend that we have a doppelganger, someone who looks exactly like us.

Imagine being able to create your very own twin, an exact copy of yourself, but one that was completely digital.

Our cities, our cars, our homes, and even ourselves are being replicated digitally in an age where everything that exists in the real world is being mimicked.

Digital twins have become a new, talked-about tech trend.

A digital twin is an exact replica of something in the real world, but with a unique mission - to help improve or give feedback to the real-life version.

Artificial intelligence combined with the internet of things has made it possible to build something that is constantly learning from and helping improve the real counterpart.

We will have the first versions of thinking human digital twins before the end of the decade, according to Rob Enderle.

Image source, Intel Free Press

He says that the emergence of these will need a lot of thought and ethical consideration.

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"?

One of the defining questions of the metaverse era will be ownership of digital twins, according to Mr. Enderle.

The journey towards human twinning is already underway, but these are clunky and primitive.

In Meta's virtual reality platform, you may be able to give your avatar a similar face to your own, but you can't give it legs because the technology is at such an early stage.

"It is reminiscent of exciting science fiction novels, and at the moment that is the stage where it is at," said Prof Wachter.

Image source, Sandra Wachter

Whether someone will be successful at law school, get sick, or commit a crime depends on the still debated nature versus nurture question.

It will be dependent on good luck and bad luck, friends, family, their socio- economic background and environment, and of course their personal choices.

She says that artificial intelligence is not good at predicting single social events. We have a long way to go before we can model a person's life from beginning to end.

Digital twins are used in a wide range of product design, distribution and urban planning.

McLaren and Red Bull use digital twins of their race cars.

A digital map of its warehouse and supply chains is being created by the delivery giant.

Image source, Getty Images

Digital twins, set up to help improve the design and operations of buildings, transport systems and streets, are being replicated in our cities, as well as in other countries.

One of the tasks of Singapore's digital twin is to find new ways for people to navigate. The technology can be used to suggest where to build new infrastructure. New cities in the Middle East are being built in the real world and on the internet at the same time.

Thousands of firms are interested in the digital twins technology offered by French software company, Dassault Systemes.

Digital twins have been used to help a hair care firm design more sustainable bottles. This reduces the amount of waste.

Image source, Getty Images

It is allowing other firms to design futuristic projects such as jetpacks, motorbikes, and even flying cars. Each has a physical prototype as well as a digital model.

Digital twins are valued in healthcare.

An accurate virtual model of a human heart can be used by surgeons to play out scenarios for the organ, using various procedures and medical devices.

The project was founded by a man who wanted to create a digital twin. He decided to recreate his daughter's heart in virtual reality because she was at high risk of heart failure.

Boston Children's Hospital is using this technology to map out real patient heart conditions, while a team of engineers is working with clinicians to test devices that may help children with rare and difficult-to-treat heart conditions.

New Tech Economy explores how technological innovation will shape the new economy.

One of the more controversial aspects of scientific research is the need to test on animals.

More digital organ twins are planned, including the eye and the brain.

"At some point we will all have a digital twin, so that you can go to the doctor, and we can make preventative medicine, and make sure that every treatment is tailored," says Ms Trouillet.

The race to create a digital version of our planet is more ambitious than replicating human organs.

Virtual worlds and digital twins can be created with the help of a US software firm.

Its most ambitious project is to build a digital doppelganger of the Earth.

Image source, Nvidia

In order to come up with solutions to climate change, Earth-2 will use a combination of deep-learning models and neural networks.

The European Commission, along with the European Space Agency, announced their plans to make a digital twin of the planet in March.

By the end of 2024, it hopes to have enough data from real-time observations and simulations to create a digital twin that will focus on floods, droughts and heatwaves, and provide countries with concrete plans to save lives.