4 December 2025

3:25 PM – 5:00 PM

Amphi Grand Kursaal

Olivia Recasens

Journalist and author Olivia Recasens has been editorial director of WE DEMAIN since March 2025. After working at Le Point (2000-2017), where she was deputy editor-in-chief, she founded the publishing house humenSciences in 2017, dedicated to popularizing science, and then headed the ecology-focused publishing house Tana (2023-2025). She has co-authored several investigative books, including Place Beauvau (2006), L’Espion du président (2012), and Bienvenue Place Beauvau (2017).

Where are the limits of intelligence and the intelligence of limits?

Does intelligence come up against insurmountable barriers, or is it just a perpetual movement of expansion and transcendence? This round table discussion explores the boundaries of knowledge and human, animal, and collective capabilities. Mathematician Cédric Villani explores the limits of understanding in mathematics, that universal language that sometimes stumbles upon the unprovable. Professor Grégory Ninot analyzes the limits of the body, between performance, resilience, and vulnerability. Ethologist Ludovic Dickel reveals how animal intelligence is constantly pushing back the boundaries we have imposed on it. Finally, astrophysicist Alain Riazuelo invites us to go beyond our cognitive abilities to “think the infinite.” Understanding our limits also means learning to overcome, transform, or accept them.