This text is the second installment of the essay “The Power of Digital / Physical Objects.” This section explores the hybrid object and mandate for action through how this objects can be a tool for change and inform temporality dictating behavior, ownership, treatment, and future accomplishments. It goes on to look at contractual relationships, the role of mission-driven organizations, and physical artifacts in driving transformation. Finally, it reflection on how digital objects can be a tool for change that alters socio-economic relations, relationships based on identity, and the overall health of a community.

Digital objects are only of value if they are able to affect our habits and habitat. On one hand, this could take the form of a game that one plays that causes one to configure a room in a particular manner. It could take the form of engagement with a social media platform that causes one to dress in a particular manner, attend specific events, and socialize with a select set of friends. On the other hand, such digital objects could lead to more profound affects on the physical world. They could take the form of a ransomware attack that shuts down a pipeline, a social media campaign that results in electing a person to serve in government, or the use of a natural resource such as water, wind, or solar power to maintain digital infrastructure. In what follows, the definition of physical and digital object will be explored, the objects that currently dominate our world will be briefly highlighted, and how new hybrid physical-digital objects with an enhanced capacity to affect change in the world might be created.