Abstract
Today, it is possible to collect and connect large amounts of digital data from various sources and life domains. This chapter examines the potential and the risks of this development from an interdisciplinary perspective. It defines the ‘global digital twin’ of a human being as the sum of all digitally stored information and predictive knowledge about a person. It points out that, compared to the digital twin of a machine, the human global digital twin is far more complex because it comprises the genetic code and the biographic code of a person. The genetic code contains not only a simple ‘construction plan’ but also hereditary information, in a form that is difficult to read. The biographic code contains all other information that can be assembled about a person, which is obtained via data from cameras, microphones, or other sensors, as well as general personal information. When the growing wealth of information concerning the genetic code and the biographical code is properly utilised, insights from biology and the behavioural sciences may be used to predict personal events such as health problems, job resignations, or even crimes. Because our own interests and those of private firms are partly in conflict over the use of this powerful knowledge, it is still unclear whether the global digital twins of humans will become a liberating or disciplining force for citizens. On the one hand, human beings are not machines: They are aware of their digital twin and therefore are able to influence it throughout their lives. Because of their free will, human beings are in general difficult to predict. Dystopias of full control over individual behaviour are therefore unlikely to materialise. On the other hand, private firms are beginning to take advantage of the available digital twins of humans by monopolising data access and by commercialising predictive knowledge. This is problematic because, unlike machines, human beings cannot only benefit from but also suffer due to their digital twins as they attempt to shape their own lives. We illustrate these issues with some examples and arrive at two conclusions: It is in the public interest for people to be granted more property rights over their personal global digital twins, and publicly funded research needs to become more interdisciplinary, much like private firms that have already begun to perform interdisciplinary research.
S. Pilz and T. Hellweg contributed equally to this work.
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Notes
- 1.
These nucleotides are distinguished by their different bases, adenine (A), cytosine (C), guanine (G), and thymine (T).
- 2.
Note: This is a highly simplified explanation.
- 3.
Gartner summarises several technologies that are part of a leading trend called the ‘digital me’ (see Gartner (2020)). It contains, e.g., the digital twin of a person, citizen twins, health passports, and bidirectional brain-machine interfaces.
- 4.
The readiness to donate blood decreases if subjects feel that they are under pressure.
- 5.
Employees reduce their proactive behaviour if they feel restricted by managers’ instructions.
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Acknowledgements
Sarah Pilz, Talea Hellweg, Christian Harteis, Ulrich Rückert, and Martin Schneider are members of the research programme ‘Design of Flexible Work Environments—Human-Centric Use of Cyber-Physical Systems in Industry 4.0’, which is supported by the North Rhine-Westphalian funding scheme ‘Forschungskolleg’. We would like to thank Marc Wollny for his assistance with literature research.
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Pilz, S., Hellweg, T., Harteis, C., Rückert, U., Schneider, M. (2023). Who Will Own Our Global Digital Twin: The Power of Genetic and Biographic Information to Shape Our Lives. In: Gräßler, I., Maier, G.W., Steffen, E., Roesmann, D. (eds) The Digital Twin of Humans. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26104-6_2
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