The Benefits of Imperfection: Biology, Society, and Beyond

The cult of performance leads our society to emphasise the values of success and continuous optimisation in all areas. Slowness, redundancy and randomness are therefore negatively perceived. Olivier Hamant, in this book, attempts to rehabilitate them by his knowledge of biological processes. What can we learn from life sciences? While some biological mechanisms certainly boast formidable efficiency, recent advances instead highlight the fundamental role of errors, incoherence and slowness in the development and the robustness of living organisms. Should life be considered suboptimal? To what extent could suboptimality become a counter-model to the credo of performance and control in the Anthropocene? In the face of pessimistic observations and environmental alerts, the author outlines solutions for a future that is viable and reconciled with nature. Key Features · Solidly documents with data reflecting a post-collapsophobic stance · Contributes to a necessary debate fuelled by current events · Offers energetic thinking instead of lamentations and criticizing focusing on solutions