The Oracle and the Algorithm

For a while now, we have been able to predict almost every event that takes place around us, from eclipses to comets to weather patterns. Mathematics and physics have become such refined tools that one may wonder: what if we could use them to predict everything? Today, thanks to the data revolution, we can. Alessandro Vespignani is at the forefront of this revolution. His goal is to develop tools to study and predict phenomena like large-scale pandemics, the spread of information throughout the web, the building of consensus and the construction of knowledge within society. The Oracle and the Algorithm allows us to look into our future and explains how, if we know how to interpret it properly, data can help us shape it into a better one.

«Vespignani is a master of social physics. He doesn’t ask easy questions, and his answers are always compelling.» il manifesto

Published June 2019 | 208 pp.

Alessandro Vespignani is Sternberg Distinguished Professor at Northeastern University, where he teaches Theoretical Condensed Matter and Biological Physics.