If Diderot or d’Alembert choose, when designing their encyclopedia, to include many plates and illustrations that explain the workings of various technical elements, it is by virtue of a principle that they seem to transform into themselves: technical objects, by becoming visible and familiar, are implicit vectors for scientific knowledge; They believe that the more we encounter them in everyday life, the better we will understand the scientific principles that made them possible. Therefore, the encyclopaedists did not expect another reality that would gradually prevail over time: the more complex the technological subject, the more simplistic its use tends to be. Thus, almost none of us can figure out how a cell phone works, which does not prevent us from using it without having to refer to any instructions. Thus, some technical things, both familiar and extraordinarily complex, end up obscuring or marginalizing scientific knowledge which nonetheless has consequences. Then this knowledge is seen as practically useless – useless in practice – and therefore simply useless. In such a context, what can the popularization of science consist of?
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