Damien Gimenez
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dgi246.bsky.social
Damien Gimenez
@dgi246.bsky.social
25 followers 22 following 41 posts
I’ve stepped back to question economics, politics and ethics—arranging concepts and building big-picture views across these domains. Main orientations: freedom of thought, distance, peace.
damiengimenez.fr
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dgi246.bsky.social
How wealth was made a political principle in 17th–18th-century England: mercantilism vs free trade, and the secularisation of sovereignty (Bodin, Hobbes, Locke) — each grounding legitimacy in material security.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
Wealth as a Political Principle: England, 17th–18th Centuries - Damien Gimenez
From the mid-16th to the 18th century, European power underwent a profound transformation. The strength of a state was no longer conceived only in terms of dynastic lineage, military glory, or defence...
damiengimenez.fr
November 3, 2025 at 7:06 AM
dgi246.bsky.social
Germany spent 20+ years running on cheap Russian gas and selling high-margin cars to China. Now batteries, rare earths and EV platforms are treated as strategic assets, not neutral trade. Berlin’s discomfort epitomises a wider global power shift.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_snapsh...
Berlin’s new stance towards Beijing shows how the global balance of power is shifting - Damien Gimenez
In a « Le Monde » article about tensions between Berlin and Beijing, the journalist writes: “The paradigm shift in international trade, where the strategic dominance of resources and raw materials, se...
damiengimenez.fr
October 27, 2025 at 9:31 AM
dgi246.bsky.social
“Protectionist policies often prove less effective than intended because they address geography rather than ownership or control.”
www.polytechnique-insights.com/en/columns/i...
What can the international market do to address Chinese technological innovation?
What can the international market do to address Chinese technological innovation? – Read the column on Polytechnique Insights
www.polytechnique-insights.com
October 24, 2025 at 11:32 AM
dgi246.bsky.social
“Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027. That would save about 30 cents on each item” picked and shipped.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/21/t...
Amazon Plans to Replace More Than Half a Million Jobs With Robots
www.nytimes.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:29 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
1/6
Thomas Piketty’s op-ed (EN) elicits a question: is “social dumping” by China a new idea? (Thread)
www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/a...
Thomas Piketty: 'If Europe does not urgently give up its love of free trade, it risks an unprecedented social and industrial disaster'
COLUMN. Europe should impose tariffs as a sort of tax on the CO₂ generated by the transportation of goods and to counter the damaging effects of Chinese dumping, writes the French economist.
www.lemonde.fr
October 18, 2025 at 6:19 AM
dgi246.bsky.social
Spain vs the Dutch Republic (16th–17th c.). From Potosí to the Wisselbank: silver, Antwerp, Genoa, Amsterdam, VOC/WIC. Two routes that valorised the economy. Plus: the School of Salamanca on prices & money, and the Reformation’s indirect role.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
The Age of Extractive and Commercial Empires: Spain and the Dutch Republic (16th–17th Century) - Damien Gimenez
At the Origins of the Valorisation of the Economy (15th–19th Centuries) – Article 2 Spain and the Dutch Republic embody two paths into the first globalisation: the former rested on extraction and impe...
damiengimenez.fr
October 13, 2025 at 6:56 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
The Chartreuse, adorned in its autumn colours.
October 12, 2025 at 12:49 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
Eline Van der Velden, head of Particle6 Production: "We believe the next generation of cultural icons will be synthetic – stars that never tire, never age, and can interact with fans."
www.lemonde.fr/en/culture/a...
Hollywood fires back at Tilly Norwood, the actress created by AI
The creation of digital artists could quickly lead to a creative revolution and poses a threat to actors. In 2023, actors went on a lengthy strike, which resulted in artificial intelligence (AI) being...
www.lemonde.fr
October 3, 2025 at 4:46 AM
dgi246.bsky.social
From credit bans to wealth’s legitimacy, from the knightly code to civic virtue: how the city-states of the Italian #Renaissance made the #economy a value.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
When the Economy Becomes a Value: The Turning Point of the Italian Renaissance - Damien Gimenez
At the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, the northern Italian city-states usher in a decisive shift: the economy is no longer merely a means of subsistence but becomes a value in political...
damiengimenez.fr
September 4, 2025 at 3:45 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
By what paths did the economy rise to the status of organising principle, to the point of sometimes seeming to supplant religion and politics? This question seems crucial in a world confronted with the accelerated automation of economic activities and global warming.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_snapsh...
At the Origins of the Valorisation of the Economy (15th–19th Centuries) - Damien Gimenez
The pre-eminence of the economy in contemporary societies has become commonplace: the commodification of most goods and services; advertisements that punctuate television programmes, are plastered acr...
damiengimenez.fr
September 2, 2025 at 2:40 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
The Great Fear of 1789: "They found that the locations most likely to host Great Fear uprisings were densely populated, more literate towns that featured average income levels but higher wheat prices."
www.popsci.com/science/misi...
Rumors spread like viruses. The French Revolution proved it.
Historians and epidemiologists join forces to uncover some scary and relevant lessons.
www.popsci.com
August 28, 2025 at 6:50 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
A study between members of the same species in 121 primates found that half of all aggressive contests were between males and females.

Males won 17% of these contests, females 13%. The remaining 70% showed no clear-cut dominance of one sex over the other.
theconversation.com/alpha-males-...
Alpha males are surprisingly rare among primates – new research
In most primates one sex isn’t dominant over the other.
theconversation.com
July 18, 2025 at 4:33 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
“Factories are being automated across China at a breakneck pace. With engineers and electricians tending to fleets of robots, these operations are bringing down the cost of manufacturing while improving quality.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/b...
An Army of Robots Is China’s Weapon in Trump’s Tariff War
Enormous investments in factory equipment and artificial intelligence are giving China an edge in car manufacturing and other industries.
www.nytimes.com
April 23, 2025 at 5:49 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
“the chaos Trump 2.0 has unleashed in such a short amount of time is both unprecedented and bewildering. In seeking to put “America First”, Trump is perversely hastening its decline. He is leaving America isolated and untrusted by its closest friends.”
theconversation.com/in-siding-wi...
In siding with Russia over Ukraine, Trump is not putting America first. He is hastening its decline
Trump’s apparent break with Ukraine is making all US allies question his reliability. He vowed to put ‘America first’, but these moves just make the US more isolated.
theconversation.com
March 4, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Reposted by Damien Gimenez
jarodlevy.bsky.social
🔥”Brain-to-Text Decoding” is now out on ArXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2502.17480
Our paper from AI at Meta and @bcbl.bsky.social presents Brain2Qwerty, an AI model that decodes text from non-invasive recordings of the brain.

Below a detailed thread 🧵1/7
February 26, 2025 at 1:58 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
The notion of #distance has gradually become central to my philosophy because, over the years, I’ve realized how much nurturing idealizations and trying to convince others of their validity only fuels opposition, even when driven by the “best intentions.”
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_snapsh...
Accepting That Others, Including Our Closed Relationships, May Be Heading Toward Their Downfall - Damien Gimenez
It’s also possible to take a step back from a situation over which we have no control, accepting a sense of powerlessness that contrasts...
damiengimenez.fr
February 24, 2025 at 4:33 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
Apptronik "has a handful of ongoing pilots, including Mercedes, which makes for a natural choice". "Boston Dynamics has similarly been working with its parent company, Hyundai; Figure has deployed robots with BMW".

#GeneralPurposeRobot

techcrunch.com/2025/02/13/a...
Apptronik, which makes humanoid robots, raises $350M as category heats up | TechCrunch
Apptronik, a University of Texas spinout that was quietly building humanoid robots before it became quite so fashionable, on Thursday announced a $350
techcrunch.com
February 20, 2025 at 7:37 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
“With A.I. tools, some start-ups are now declaring that they will stop hiring at a certain size.”

“The biggest bragging rights for these start-ups are for making the most revenue with the fewest workers.”

#AI #Employment
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/20/t...
A.I. Is Changing How Silicon Valley Builds Start-Ups
Tech start-ups typically raised huge sums to hire armies of workers and grow fast. Now artificial intelligence tools are making workers more productive and spurring tales of “tiny team” success.
www.nytimes.com
February 20, 2025 at 7:20 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
Hasn't #Authoritarianism been a deep-seated trend in Western countries since the end of the postwar economic boom?
We can differentiate a protectionist flavor from a neoliberal one. Both are grounded in 19th century's #values that are called into question today.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
Western Authoritarianisms or the Denial of a Global Evolution - Damien Gimenez
Authoritarianism did not emerge overnight—it has been a deep-seated trend in Western countries since the end of the postwar economic boom...
damiengimenez.fr
February 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
Reposted by Damien Gimenez
rcgd-isr.bsky.social
Alone time can present opportunities to reflect, recharge, and relax, but the US news is 10x more likely to describe being alone as harmful than beneficial. Is this framing exacerbating loneliness? RCGD researcher Ethan Kross coauthors in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
How people think about being alone shapes their experience of loneliness - Nature Communications
Loneliness is a widespread problem that the media and public health campaigns frequently address. Here, the authors show that negative media portrayals of being alone may inadvertently make matters wo...
www.nature.com
February 17, 2025 at 8:09 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
“Over time, arbitrary trade policy will only inflict more damage on the American economy. America’s allies and friends will form new commercial ties”

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/14/o...
Opinion | The Dangers of Arbitrary Trade Policy
What Mr. Trump is doing with tariffs is a result of a lost consensus about how the United States should interact with other countries in the global economy.
www.nytimes.com
February 14, 2025 at 7:46 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
Why did the First Industrial Revolution happen in Britain, not France? Could technical culture be the missing link?

In this article I also wonder if technical culture is still crucial nowadays for innovation, and if innovation is necessary or sufficient.

👉 damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
On the Role of Technical Culture in Innovation and the Limits of Innovation Today - Damien Gimenez
Technical Culture as a Factor in the First Industrial Revolution In Power and Progress, Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson provide a detailed account of how technological advancements have rarely benefi...
damiengimenez.fr
February 10, 2025 at 5:35 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
As new forms of obscurantisms/idealizations keep rising, it's not a luxury to question ourselves about #freedom of #thought, about how it increased in Western societies and about its limits.
damiengimenez.fr/wpdgi_articl...
Progress and Limits of Freedom of Thought in Europe from the 16th to the 18th Century - Damien Gimenez
We distinguish here three philosophical moments that follow one another and overlap: the sceptical moment, the critical moment, and the theoretical moment.
damiengimenez.fr
February 6, 2025 at 8:43 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
GDP and productivity at the expense of democracy, equality, environment, mental health, trust... The cost of being economically great nowadays.

stateofnation.org
February 4, 2025 at 9:08 PM
dgi246.bsky.social
Democrats agree that they're against Trump and his tech-oligarchy, they hope Trump will fail to deliver his promises. Not only do they lack a message, they also lack a project and a vision... because it's all about making America powerful?

www.nytimes.com/2025/02/02/u...
‘We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump
More than 50 interviews with Democratic leaders revealed a party struggling to decide what it believes in, what issues to prioritize and how to confront an aggressive right-wing administration.
www.nytimes.com
February 2, 2025 at 3:18 PM