Making everything ac-count-able

The digital twinning paradigm

Datos Bibliográficos

ID6443602
AutoresChristoph Borbach (0000-0002-6184-7278, University of Siegen, autor de correspondencia), Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (0000-0002-7155-919X, Simon Fraser University), Tristan Thielmann (0000-0002-3735-0843, University of Siegen)
Año2025
Volumen27
Número8
Páginas4369-4384
Fecha de publicación2025-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448251338289
OpenAlexW4412850334
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas30

This editorial investigates the epistemic and media-theoretical significance of digital twinning as a decision-making practice. Digital twins purport to calculate futures based on sensor data in conjunction with generative AI, cloud computing, and Internet-of-things architectures; they shape institutional decisions and are used to make such decisions accountable. To illustrate this, examples from the logistics, transportation, and military sectors are contrasted to earlier simulations and described as “phenomenotechniques.” We argue that digital twins are recent expressions of a technocratic paradigm characterized by the imperative to make everything worldly “count,” datafying and modeling it within digital environments in real time for future predictions. Digital twins are thus performative agents in a network of feedback loops between humans, machines, environments, and algorithms. This article concludes with an overview of the special issue, placing digital twins in the phenomenological context of media that are seamlessly and simultaneously logistical, spatial, and transformative

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