The Age of the Digital Twin

Ali Nicholl from Iotic outlines why we need digital twins, what they are and how we can all benefit from a new digital twin age. 

There is a school of thought that there have to date been two technology platforms that truly leveraged the power of algorithms. The first was the World Wide Web, which enabled information to be shared and algorithms to be applied.

The second was social media. The rise of Facebook, Twitter, and others created digital versions of individuals, enabling the application of machine learning to understand and influence our interests, careers, relationships, and lives.

We have digitised and interrelated information and individuals, but what of a third platform? Kevin Kelly whose title is Senior Maverik at Wired Magazine described the third platform: “all things and places will be machine-­readable, subject to the power of algorithms. Also, like its predecessors, this new platform will unleash the prosperity of thousands more companies in its ecosystem, and a million new ideas—and problems—that weren't possible before machines could read the world."