When nature goes digital: routes for responsible innovation

Abstract

Digitalization of biological populations and ecosystems changes our relation towards them. In silico representations of natural systems make them available as resources that allow for novel ways of deriving economic value. These extracted data and models also open novel routes for responsible innovation based on biological systems and derived biological data. Responsible innovation based on natural resources is explored using the common pool resource framework and using the emerging field of biodiversity sequencing as an example. Natural systems that have a vast digital representation which is shared by a community have aspects from both a natural resource commons and from a knowledge commons, but differ in their structure and dynamics. We therefore propose the concept of 'Twin Commons': the institutional arrangement of natural resources that have a tightly linked digital component which is shared and governed by a community, and that have research and innovation as important outlets.

The Digital Twin in Medicine: A Key to the Future of Healthcare?

“…There are also socioethical risks in the DT healthcare. Privacy, which seems to be the most important one, is the main reason why the DT may be disadvantageous ( 40 , 41 ). Furthermore, the high cost of the DT healthcare can lead to inequality and injustice, thereby widening the existing socioeconomic gap.…”

The use of digital twins in healthcare: socio-ethical benefits and socio-ethical risks

“…In this paper, we focus on the use of digital twins in healthcare, an area that has already received some recent attention from ethicists and other scholars (Bagaria et al 2020 ; Björnsson et al 2020 ; Bruynseels et al 2018 ). The use of digital twins in healthcare has prompted not only significant hopes for the improvement of diagnostics and treatment, it has also sparked debates about its social and ethical consequences (e.g., Bruynseels et al 2018 ; Bruynseels 2020 ). To start with, digital twins inherit most of the socio-ethical issues concerning privacy and individuality (our conception of a human individual) that have been associated in the past with personalized medicine and health (Korthals 2008 ).…”

Politicising Circular Economy: what can we learn from Responsible Innovation?

“…The 'how much' question relates to the need to decouple economic growth from welfare to keep global consumption of natural resources within limits that are compatible with the ecosystems that sustain life on the planet. This also implies questioning the need for endless and unchecked economic growth (de Saille et al 2020) and thinking of participatory production planning and wealth distribution mechanisms that would combine an awareness of environmental limits with a fair and just access to natural resources (Bruynseels 2020).…”