Can We Build a Digital Twin of Earth?
Building ships, as in massive container ships, warships and especially aircraft carriers and submarines is an incredibly complex undertaking. Manufacturing many products today is also very complex, especially medical devices. This is why many manufacturers and shipyards have adopted the approach of digital twins. That is, creating a fully digital representation of their plants, production processes and the desired end product. It can be visualized and navigated. Engineers and skilled workers can zoom in and out and manipulate the parts of the system. Some companies claim to be doing this so that they can put their business into the metaverse. So what about making a digital twin of our own planet?
At some point, creating an entire digital twin may become possible. Today, the amount of sensors required to feed the main system, the sheer processing power and the energy needed to run a full digital twin isn’t there. Advances in quantum computing, batteries for energy storage and better generation capacities through renewable energy sources could help. And we are already seeing this done to some degree.
In agriculture there is increased use of various sensors placed in the soil, on tractors and other equipment, drones and satellites that monitor from above. This is also happening in some forests for forest health management. We are sending water surface drones around our oceans and embedding sensors on the ocean floors (for more than just military purposes) and tagging whales, sharks and other sea life.
We’ve been tagging animals and putting sensors in the oceans for decades but these devices have been limited in the data collected and the ability to transmit. Now, more sensors that are smaller but have greater capabilities are being developed and they’re cheaper to make as well. Advances in communications mean more consistent collection of data and transmission of that data into data warehouses. Scientists in some areas and engineers are sharing that data so that deeper understandings through advanced analytics can be determined.
The Benefits of a Digital Twin of Earth
The more we can embed sensors in oceans, rivers, lakes, forests, agricultural and wild lands and deploy advanced satellites, the bigger and more comprehensive a picture we get of our planet. The benefits can help in some critical ways.
We will be able to predict the weather a little bit better. As we improve our understanding of complex systems (such as weather) and employ Artificial Intelligence, especially Machine Learning and Neural Networks, we may be able to spot when and where storms are starting. As climate change proceeds along its merry way, this may become critical for shipping, air travel and resource management.
While there are already networks of sensors monitoring the earths tectonic plates, more sensors from other places around the world and from other applications could be applied to better predict earthquakes and give earlier warnings.
How often do we say the world has become more complex? The planet itself, the systems of nature and the environment have always been complex. For humans however, we’ve not fully comprehended the meaning of this until recent decades. The discovery of mycelium and how their networks connect trees so that messages and resources can be shared (the wood wide web), was a profound moment in this understanding.
Everything is information and everything communicates. The internet we created largely mimics the wood wide web itself. Humans have just manipulated earths natural resources in different ways.
And what has become more complicated is the way we humans are living on our planet. Our societies have indeed become more complex, especially as we connect and communicate faster than ever before in our history.
This is why, the closer we can get to a digital twin of earth, the better technologies like AI and analytics get, the better we can understand the planet we live on, appreciate the power of nature and find more sustainable ways to live in harmony, rather than making decisions that we can understand the risks of until they have occurred. Eliminating all risk is a fools errand, but we can manage it better. Creating a digital twin of earth may well be critical in how humans adapt on the path to become Digital Sapiens.
