Digital Twin
conceptAI & Compute · Intelligence & Surveillance · Media & Managed Opposition
A system that predicts the future is fed by a constant stream of surveillance data, and it is promoted as a way to save the planet.
Who they are
The United Nations, through a 2023 UN-backed Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age, which calls to 'Build Planetary Digital Twin' systems.
What they do
The plan says these systems can 'measure, monitor and model the health of the planet's biosphere and interactions with economic and social systems'.
How it works
The Digital Twin relies on surveillance inputs: satellite imagery, mobile phone records, social media data, public health registries, and internet-of-things sensors. All of this data is sent to the Digital Twin for future prediction. The UN advocates this approach. Related documents include Governing Foundation Models, DestinE, GEOSS, GeoHealth, and EO4HEALTH. The modelling provider is IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis). Agenda 21's SDGs are converted into surveillance-based global indicators fed into Digital Twins.
Why it matters
It shows how a tool for predicting the future depends on widespread surveillance, and how public advocacy presents it as measuring and monitoring the planet's health.
The engine's record — word for word
The corpus records: "They rely on a steady stream of surveillance inputs: satellite imagery, mobile phone records, social media data, public health registries, internet-of-things sensors, all of which are sent to a Digital Twin for future prediction." It is presented publicly as: "The United Nations has explicitly advocated this approach: a 2023 UN-backed Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age 6 calls to ‘Build Planetary Digital Twin’ 7 systems that can ‘measure, monitor and model the health of the planet’s biosphere and interactions with economic and social systems’ 8 ." Documents named in the corpus: Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age; Governing Foundation Models; DestinE; GEOSS; GeoHealth; EO4HEALTH. Cross-sourced to jbs.cam.ac.uk, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, precedenceresearch.com — documents cited by the corpus and retrieved independently of it.
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