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Paper short abstract

This research scrutinises the socio-technical imaginary about the relation between technology and sustainability that emerges in the promotion of Europe's Digital Twin of the Earth. The current imaginary seems to direct the project towards a Eurocentric, one-directional and high-tech driven future.

Paper long abstract

"Destination Earth", or in short "DestinE" is a project of the European Commission that aims to develop of a Digital Twin of planet Earth: a highly accurate data-driven digital representation that is expected to monitor and predict the interaction between natural phenomena and human activity. Because DestinE is expected to play a key role in environmental governance, it is important to scrutinise what relations between technology and sustainability this large technical project proposes and reinforces.

This article will take a first step in drawing out the world-views in DestinE by analysing the socio-technical imaginary that emerges in the promotion and framing of the project. Drawing on philosophy of technology and science and technology studies, we employ critical hermeneutics to scrutinise three main narratives driving the DestinE project: the Digital Twin narrative as well as the coupled narratives of the Europe's Twin Transition, i.e. the Green Deal and Digital Strategy. We trace how these narratives conceptualise DestinE and promote certain approaches to its representation of and relation to the Earth. As DestinE is still in its early stages of development, offering insight into the imaginary that emerges through the project promotion can help to question and recalibrate the project as it develops. The article concludes that the current imaginary seems to direct the project towards a Eurocentric and one-directional future, and offers a research agenda to open up alternative futures.