Digital Twin as Subject of Information Ethics

Abstract

The paper examines the origins, model characteristics, and ethical parameters of the digital twin. The introduction argues that the idea of a digital twin stems from the phenomenon of art-shaped ambivalence. The concept of a twin is the result of the bifurcation of a holistic consciousness of personality rooted in the rational overload of moral consciousness. At the same time, the twin largely compensates and duplicates the irrational plan of the individual in all the diversity of his carnival-mystical feelings and actions (so-called “twin mystery” by M.M. Bakhtin). This is reflected in the model of the digital twin, whose “cloud being” can be considered the equivalent of the irrational depths of the human person. If behind the artistic image of the twin is the creative face of the author, behind the model of the digital twin is the user of the personal information space, who in some “simulation-creative im­pulse” to information communication creates his “hero” – the information twin, the “heart” of which is the personal model built on the array of Big Data – the sum of information that the person has ever given to the digital world. At the same time, the more perfect the algo­rithm and the more personal data it contains, the more realistic the digital twin becomes. The article attempts to reveal the essence of the digital twin as a subject of information ethics and to identify the criteria of his ethical identity. It is suggested that the main imper­atives of information ethics for the digital twin are principles based on commandments, “don’t steal” and “don’t lie” which receive a kind of refraction in the information space. Here they mean, “don’t steal someone else’s information” and “don’t distort your own in­formation”. Taken together, these two norms define the required minimum identity of the digital twin. In the digital world, direct murder is impossible, but theft and lies (distortion of one’s own and others’ information) can lead to the digital death of a twin. The conclu­sion explores the ethical challenges of digital tanatology: the post-death of the digital twin, the right to digital personality remains, and the ethical principles of regulating the “informa­tion and afterlife industry” (DAI).