The general appeal of the word “code” in several areas of knowledge should not make us forget the different uses it can be put to in each field. A code can refer to the key to access a certain type of knowledge, it can evoke the symbols used in secret writing, or it may even refer to a text listing rules governing the representation of things and actions.
Breaking any kind of code is a permanent task for those who seek to understand the secret of their lives. For if “everything in our lives is a code”, then breaking that code must certainly be one of the prerequisites of our freedom.

With contributions by Nalini Balbir, Michel Broué, Bernard Dujon, Michel Imbert, Alan Kirman, Bernard Lacroix, Nicolas Le Roux, Christiane Marchello-Nizia, Gérard Timsit, Jacques Vauclair.