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Misuse of technology terms is common, and Digital Twin is another example. The term Digital Twin is now embedded and unlikely to be dropped. However, it must be used correctly. Computer simulations have existed since the birth of the digital computer. A computer’s reason for being is to run a model, from a simple alogrithm to a complex simulation. Even using email and writing a document in a wordprocessor is a model of previoulsy manual tasks. A Digital Twin is a step up in fidelity and feedback, it needs to be a live model of a cyber-physical systems, at any scale. It is more than a simulation or model. It can be used for real-time querying and analysis and running what-if scenarios without impacting the system it is representing until changes are pushed out. The twin part is refering to the properties of the real system that the digital system can provide and mimic. Yes, it is not a twin in the true meaning of the term, but it is a virtual representation of a physical system and is enough of a twin to be useful. It is up to those who know the difference between an algorithm, model, simulation, and twin to point out when terms are used incorrectly.
Dan