Digital twin
A digital twin is a virtual model of a specific physical thing — a building, a machine, a city block — kept in correspondence with the real one. In an industrial context the correspondence is maintained by sensors; in a commercial-world context it is usually maintained by nothing, which is where the term is misused.
The distinction that is routinely lost
A twin is defined by the live correspondence, not by the resemblance. A 3D replica of a shop that does not know the shop's stock, hours or occupancy is a model. Calling it a twin borrows credibility from industrial practice where the data link is the entire product.
Where it becomes commercially real
When the virtual copy carries state the physical one also has — stock, availability, price — a customer can transact in either and the two stay consistent. That is a genuine capability and a considerably harder engineering problem than building the replica.
See also
Related entries in the Register. Every see-also is reciprocal — if this entry points there, that entry points back.
Metaverse Group, The Register, REG-020 “Digital twin”, as at 2026-08-28. https://metaversegroup.com/encyclopedia/digital-twin/
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