In a Flight of Starlings: The Wonder of Complex Systems

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I was really excited for what I thought this book was (a book from a Nobel prize winning physicist about complex systems) and ended up reading a memoir/essay collection instead. Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse/PA Images View image in fullscreen Giorgio Parisi: ‘Trying to describe some sophisticated physics problem without formulae takes real effort. We had a meeting of academics at the G7 in Paris in 2019, and one thing that we were very worried about was weapons systems controlled by AI. When it was time to go to university, I pondered if I should do physics or maths, but in the end I went for physics. For decades, science has been warning us that human behavior is setting the stage for a dramatic rise in the temperature of our planet.

Part elegant scientific treatise, part thrilling intellectual journey, In a Flight of Starlings is an invitation to find wonder in the world around us. Then, in the very last paragraph, Parisi finally lets the secret out: “This book is my attempt to convey to a wide readership something of the beauty, importance, and cultural value of modern science.

Earlier this year, he suggested that when cooking pasta, one should turn the burner off after adding the noodles to boiling water.

The first 18 pages was about his experience trying to define and capture how a collective gathering of starlings can move with incredible unison. All very interesting even if I didn't grasp the more detailed parts of atomic structures and their behaviors with each other. My suspicions arose when I opened the file and found it was only 94 pages, divided over eight tiny chapters. Giorgio Parisi has written a slim, flight-length primer on the ways that “scientists toil, doubt, succeed, and fail.Parisi’s voice is amiable and conversational, which endows [In a Flight of Starlings ] with the feel of a conversation with a wise and generous elder. You stare at the seat back in front of you, stifle a sigh, and try to disassociate — all the while hoping your neighbor catches a clue and has some Excel sheets to poke around in. Parisi uses this book to connect some disparate scientific fields that he’s spent time on, from the way starlings flock to the spin glass work that won him a Nobel prize. When you have multiple minima and the ball keeps on rolling and the dynamics change as a function of time. Our viewpoint was that if one decides to kill some human being, that decision should be taken by people and not machines.