The Metaverse as a Solution to Depopulation: Creation of Interconnected Macro-villages Through Digital Twins and Transportation. The Theory of Population Leverage

The creation of a digital twin within the metaverse has the potential to revolutionize the interconnection of small localities, increasing the services available and improving business competitiveness. This innovation has the potential to turn these nuclei into places of greater attractiveness, contributing to the mitigation of the phenomenon of depopulation. In this study, we grouped 596 smart-villages in Andalusia, each with up to 10,000 inhabitants, unifying without loss of identity 1550.344 individuals and obtaining a total of 109,148 companies with the potential to settle in the metaverse. This transformation fosters expansive social and business growth, extending its horizons beyond geographical limitations. By applying metaheuristics in transportation, we can interconnect all these communities. Thus, through virtual and augmented reality, each locality can multiply its service offer in a range of 80.97 to 1550.344 times its capacity with the data of 2021. This research shows a new model of competitiveness for smart villages and introduces, for the first time, the theory of population leverage. It states that by increasing services and inhabitants in a shared digital world, more population can be attracted, increasing the competitiveness of these localities. Our findings indicate that business growth propels population growth. In addition, the elimination of geographical barriers and the potential reduction of the carbon footprint underscore the sustainable future of this technology. In this way, emerging technology presents a viable solution to one of the main challenges of the twenty-first century: depopulation.