Who Will Own Our Global Digital Twin: The Power of Genetic and Biographic Information to Shape Our Lives

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.