  The paper, drawing on the example of simulation codes used in nuclear physics
and high-energy physics, seeks to highlight the ethical implications of
discontinuing support for simulation codes and the loss of knowledge embodied
in them. Predicated on the concept of trading zones and actor network models,
the paper addresses the problem of extinction of simulation codes and attempts
to understand their evolution and development within those frameworks. We show
that simulation codes of closed type develop to the level of creoles, becoming
local languages and standards of scientific centers and disappearing as their
few main developers leave, whereas codes of open types become universal
languages, imposing problem-solving patterns on the entire community and
crowding out other codes. The paper suggests that because of simulations'
reliance on tacit knowledge, practices entrenched in codes cannot be
exhaustively explicated or transmitted through writing alone; on the contrary,
the life cycle of a simulation code is determined by the life cycle of its
trading zone. We examine the extent to which both of these phenomena pose a
risk to the preservation of knowledge. Bearing upon intergenerational ethics,
we draw analogies between the pure intergenerational problem (PIP) and the
problem of preserving the knowledge implemented in simulation codes and
transmitting it to future generations. We argue that for the complete transfer
of knowledge, it is necessary to develop and maintain inhabitability and
sustainability of simulation trading zones in a controllable way, at least
until the demand for these codes is warranted to cease in the future.
