social media experiments to feel-good stories about amazing coincidences, like that time those two bearded men met on a plane. But Rowe’s situation exposes the darker side of having a virtual twin. In his case, it led to a mild case of mistaken identity, its absurdities more Sedaris than Kafka. But as facial recognition programs proliferate and biometric passport photos become the norm, what will happen when your digital identity supersedes the version of you that grows old and wrinkled over time? For some, that sounds terrific. DNA testing and fingerprint analysis and all that technology stuff is objective, they declare confidently. The machine cannot be fooled. Until that day it scans your data and decides you’re that criminal everyone is looking for, and so you are, even if you’re innocent. Because machines are truthful. Humans lie.From digital kidnapping to ID theft to plain old look-alikes, it’s never been harder to just be yourself online
">Meet your online doppelgänger: On the Internet, nobody knows you’re not really trolling Ann Coulter
The game of meeting your Internet doppelgänger has become its own thing, ranging from social media experiments to feel-good stories about amazing coincidences, like that time those two bearded men met on a plane. But Rowe’s situation exposes the darker side of having a virtual twin. In his case, it led to a mild case of mistaken identity, its absurdities more Sedaris than Kafka. But as facial recognition programs proliferate and biometric passport photos become the norm, what will happen when your digital identity supersedes the version of you that grows old and wrinkled over time? For some, that sounds terrific. DNA testing and fingerprint analysis and all that technology stuff is objective, they declare confidently. The machine cannot be fooled. Until that day it scans your data and decides you’re that criminal everyone is looking for, and so you are, even if you’re innocent. Because machines are truthful. Humans lie.