Numerical Simulation, An Art of Prediction 1

ForewordForms of Citizen Knowledge

For a long time, technology has served as a reference point in order to legitimize the notion of progress. Now, it is often seen as a deterrent. Technophiles and technophobes thus confront each other around the meaning to be given to technology in a sometimes dubious battle.

Rather than imposing on technology a symmetrically inverse role as a sign of history or a sign of despair, it would undoubtedly be more beneficial for everyone to understand that technology does not exist in itself, that it is a political choice and deserves to be collectively reflected upon. In this case, while exploring the mysteries of mechanics, and consequently of scientific and technical knowledge, through the analysis of numerical simulation, the objective of Jean-François Sigrist, engineer and industrial researcher, is this: to rectify the mysteries created around the contributions of cutting-edge technological dynamics to contemporary research and to remind us that citizens have a certain power – that of the power of words that express choices – over scientists, experts and decision-makers.

It is indeed with a mixture of cynicism and disbelief that many often react to statements about algorithms, for example, focusing media attention. Some talk about them in order to dominate the “ignorant”, others argue against seizing this mode of knowledge and conceptual construction by claiming its abstraction from the lived world and the last would like to push the “backward” ...