The EconomistFebruary 22nd 2020 3A
n army ofdoppelgangers is invading the world. Digital copies
of aircraft engines, wind turbines and other heavy equipment
came first. Now the electronic ghosts of smaller and larger things
are joining them in the virtual realm, from toothbrushes and traf-
fic lights to entire shops and factories. Even humans have begun
developing these alter egos. In America the National Football
League is planning to design an electronic avatar for every player.
These “digital twins”, as geeks term them, are far more than rep-
licas of the original. Think of them more as shadows that are,
thanks to a multitude of sensors and wireless connectivity, inti-
mately linked to their physical selves, and every day producing
oceans of data. If something happens in the real world, it is rapidly
reflected in this shadow realm. Some digital twins already come
with the laws of nature programmed in. They double as a database
of everything that has ever happened to the original. This makes it
possible to look into their future. Sports coaches, for instance, will
be able to run simulations, predict when an athlete might get in-
jured and adjust training routines to avoid problems.
Digital twins are just one part of a vast shift in the world’s econ-
omy. They populate what David Gelernter of Yale University long
ago forecast as “mirror worlds”: a new dimension of human life
based on and fuelled by data. Year by year, ever more parts of the
physical realm are coming to be represented and simulated in the
virtual world—an inversion of Plato’s theory that real-world ob-
jects are just imperfect copies of their true being in the spiritual
realm. The emergence of these mirror worlds will bring about a
distinct economy. This development will require new markets, in-
stitutions, infrastructure, businesses and even geopolitical ar-
rangements. It is the promises and pitfalls of the new “data econ-
omy” which will be the focus of this special report.
Mirror worlds are not mere mathematical representations of
real ones. They also give new meaning to the adage that knowledge
is power. Increasingly, digital copies are taking on lives of their
own and acting on the physical world. They can be used to opti-
mise everything, from the acoustics of a headset to an entire na-
tional railway network. They will enable all sorts of artificial-intel-
ligence (ai) algorithms to recognise objects and faces, understand
speech and even distinguish smells. And they make possible new
business models: why buy heavy equipment if its wear and tear
can be measured in detail and it can thus be rented by the minute?
A good place to start analysing any economy is by measuring it.
A robust methodology has yet to be developed, but the data econ-
omy is already large. Statistics Canada, a government agency, last
year tried to estimate the value of the country’s data (its stock plusMirror worlds
Special report
A deluge of data is giving rise to a new economy. Ludwig Siegele asks how it will work
The data economy
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