Government efficiency

Bernard Stiegler predicted DOGE at the end of the Obama era.

He was French philosopher and theorist of digital technology, and explored the logical conclusion of the concept of disruption. He compared tech tycoons to Barbarians who work by outpacing the law. He passed away in 2020, and didn’t live to see how prescient he was:

The goal is ultimately to radicalize the conservative revolution — which was itself a radical critique of social-democratic reformism and the “Fordist-Keynesian compromise.” This occurs either by subordinating all material, formal, and final causes to the efficient cause that disruption would represent as self-sufficient; that is: without any goal beyond efficiency itself. The aim is to outpace law and its consequences through the immediacy of facts.

This dominance of fact-driven action leads to the dilution of public authority: what the Barbarians are attacking is the legitimacy of the public realm — specifically because it cannot be appropriated by private initiatives. This attack by the Barbarians represents a claim, if not for complete lawlessness, then at least for the futility of law, against which disruption enables them to “undermine France” by multiplying loopholes — and consequently, chaos. It is in this way that accomplished nihilism realizes the “new form of barbarism.”

–Bernard Stiegler, “Dans la disruption” (2016)

“Without any goal beyond efficiency itself” (Elon Musk and Javier Milei, February 2025)

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Golden Alumni – Cafe virtuel

I participated in a French Alumni “Cafe virtuel“, organized by the French Alumni association and talking about my professional journey and my research.

Here is the recording:

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Missing millions

(this is a blog entry that was initially a bluesky post – you can follow me at bsky.app/profile/antonymous.bsky.social)

Total US population by Age and Characteristics in December 2024

I was reading the latest report from the @nationalacademies.org on global talents, and the need for a strategy to recruit and train talents. One sentence in the preface about the “missing millions” really caught my attention:

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CILAC – Synchrotrons in the Greater Caribbean and Beyond

The Latin American and Caribbean Open Science Forum (CILAC – Foro Abierto de Ciencias de Latinoamérica y el Caribe), an event organized by UNESCO had a satellite even on GCLS/LAMISTAD Symposium: Synchrotrons in the Greater Caribbean and Beyond (website) to which I participated (and help organize)

Day 1:
https://www.youtube.com/live/LFEzfNRtfXQ

Day 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo_U1suKib

Day 3:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP1h0OHqoIc

WordPress issues

Hello readers,

quick note: I’m experiencing issues with WordPress and I couldn’t publish new posts lately.

It’s likely I’ll have to do a complete overhaul, so it may take a little while to get back on track.

Stay tuned!
edit Jan 2025: it seems some of those issues have been resolved, so I will update the blog retroactively

 

MPSI2 Kleber 2003-2004

I was recently looking to through archive pictures, and stumbled on a old picture of my class – from when I was 18 (I’m first from the left on the second row) just after I moved to Strasbourg coming, straight from the Caribbean

MPSI2 Kleber 2003-2004

Though I truly hated prep school (classe prépa – it was tough adjustment, 5000 miles from my family), it’s interesting to see where the people in this picture went, from Sebastien (OpenAI), Marie (Thales/Jolt) or Francois-Xavier (Goldman Sachs.) I have a fond memory the math teacher Thierry Schwarz – the most tranquil force I’ve ever met – despite the Bourbaki-style nature of Maths Sup teachings that got me angry at maths for a long time (before the elegance of Fourier transforms reinvigorated my interest.)

I hate python

I hate python.

I’ve worked with many coding languages over the years, starting from C, going into C# and Matlab, and I really loathe python when it comes to scientific computing.

My contention with it is that it hampers the kind of rapid iteration needed for exploration – and I struggle teaching its basics to many of my students, who get more confused about the many library imports, the lack of proper IDE or really good REPL that would let them focus on the essential of the code.

Here’s a take from LeCun, which I wholly agree with:

If only I could do without it… Alternative are few (say Julia, or rust?) and are not widely used – the curse of path-dependent progress.

A strange take on the Gadsden flag  – the true meaning of the snek

The State of the Science Address – National Academy of Science

I stumbled upon the The State of the Science Address from Marcia McNutt, the President of the National Academy of Science, through the always very interesting AIP FYI weekly newsletter.

Here’s a tl;dr version:

  • The US win 15% of the medals at the Olympics, but 60% of the Nobel – really efficient at attracting and retaining talents
  • The US science workforce is increasingly International, but the US become less attractive (and visas are getting harder to get)
  • China is rapidly increasing as a global force in science. Not only they publish a lot of science, but the quality of the output has increased
  • International collaboration is important to avoid the possibility a single player flaunts the rules.
  • researchers are underpaid (industry pays 70% better)
  • The quality of STEM education in K-12 is not keeping pace with the world
  • Philanthropy is a major funder of science (about 10%)
  • Public support for science is important

Concluding slide from from Marcia McNutt’s State of the Science Address (full talk)

Five years ago, I had a chance to meet Dr. McNutt at Berkeley Lab. She was seeking input from postdocs on how the envisioned science.

An old picture from 2019 with the President of the National Academy of Science Marcia McNutt and the Berkeley Lab postdocs (my besties Sinead, Valentine, Fadji, Maria and I)

I told her that I really enjoyed being a scientist in federal lab (i.e. not a professor on campus), but I bluntly put that in my opinion academia (on campuses) is increasingly becoming a ponzi scheme – the PI recruits postdocs who take care of grad student who supervise intern. I guess she doesn’t disagree.

All the conclusion slides:

Opportunity slides from from Marcia McNutt’s State of the Science Address (full talk)

Ecotrove

My partner is co-founder of a company named EcoTrove, whose goal is to replace your utility bills with a fixed-price clean energy subscription up to 10% cheaper.

The service is currently only available to PG&E customers – if you’re interested, check it out! They basically calculate what the best rate plan is given your electricity consumption profile, and switch it automatically. Customers can change it twice a year, but they seldom do. This is all the more important that the optimal rates also optimize the greenliness of your consumption.

Greater Caribbean Light Source

Last week I hosted Leo Violini, the founder of the Centro Internacional de Física in Bogotà (Columbia), and a proponent of the the Greater Caribbean Light Source

Big science in Latin America: accelerate particles and progress – Nature (March 2024)

Here is a video of his talk on the proposal for Greater Caribbean Light Source:

And a video of his second talk on science diplomacy: