Building a Sustainable Digital Fabric for the Future

While Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse ideas seem ambitious, they hold merit for sustainable digital twins. Virtual reality, haptic interfaces, and touch-screen displays once seemed like science fiction but became the norm. Today, we must shift towards sustainability, creating digital twins for every item to ensure resource recycling, safety, and environmental soundness. Our responsibility extends beyond fixing past mistakes; we must preserve our technological wisdom for future generations as we explore new frontiers like Mars.

From virtual reality helmets to haptic interfaces, these concepts may currently sound like science fiction. However, we must remember that the same skepticism surrounded touch-screen displays not too long ago before they became the norm (although, personally, I’ve always preferred the efficiency of a qwerty-keyboard).

Shifting Towards Sustainability

Since the advent of the first industrial revolution, our planet has endured ruthless exploitation, with fossil fuels consumed voraciously and vital rainforests destroyed without concern for the consequences. Over the past few decades, however, digital technology has provided us with the means to record and track our actions, initially used to bolster unchecked resource consumption.

Digital Twins for Future Innovation

Today, we are acutely and painfully aware of our effect to the planet, which in my opinion makes us ultimately responsible for creating a far more sustainable way of business and living in general. In my view, nothing should be created or manufactured without a sustainable Digital Twin, which tracks the whole lifecycle of any thing, ensuring resource recycling, safety and environmental soundness.

A Comprehensive Approach

When I say “everything,” I mean it. From toothpicks to cars, from pizzas to drones, every item should have a sustainable Digital Twin. However, our focus should not solely be on rectifying our past recklessness and ignorance regarding the planet. We also bear the responsibility of preserving our current technological wisdom for future generations, ensuring that they never repeat our near-planet-destroying habits as we venture beyond Earth, colonizing Mars and other potential future homes.

//Pasi