1st Edition
The Benefits of Imperfection Biology, Society, and Beyond
1. Preamble, as an executive summary. 2. The Age of Performance. 3. Which Third Way? 4. Suboptimality. 5. Robustness of Life. 6. A Counter-Model. 7. Some Chronological Reference Points. 8. Acronyms and Abbreviations. 9. References.
Biography
Olivier Hamant is a researcher at the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, INRAE) at École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. As an interdisciplinary biologist, he has published approximately 100 scientific articles, notably on the development of plants and their ability to perceive their own shape. He also heads the Michel Serres Institute and is involved in training programmes on the new relationship between humanity and nature. As an independent author, he published La Troisième Voie du Vivant (Odile Jacob, 2022) / The Benefits of Imperfection (CRC Press, 2025), Antidote to the Cult of Performance (Gallimard, 2023) and De l'Incohérence (Odile Jacob, 2024, untranslated).
