1. A little philosophy

In philosophy, Rabelais reminded us that "science without conscience is but the ruin of the soul". If we want to transpose this beautiful maxim to today's technology, all we have to do is replace ruin of the soul with ruin tout court. Perhaps that's why the ever-pragmatic Anglo-Saxons prefer to use the word "philosophy", whereas the ever-theoretical French would rather say "politique". And when it comes to corrosion, this philosophy is always that of the "owner", i.e. the person who sees his or her "assets" or "profits" progressively nibbled away by corrosion, if not totally wiped out. It's also worth noting that the English words "owner", "assets" or "profits" have none of the heavy connotations of their French counterparts, just as the famous "accounting logic" has only become a dirty word in France...

In the same way, it would never occur to anyone to name a...