A capability is not stored in its documentation: institutions lose the ability to do things while retaining complete records of how those things were done, and discover the loss only when they try to do them again. Twelve cases, one method, no technical prerequisite.
What you will do
Twelve seminars, each built around one documented case of an institution finding out it had lost something it thought it still had — from a laser nobody could rebuild from the published papers, to a nuclear material a production line could no longer remake from its own surviving paperwork. For each case you'll apply a small, consistent method: pull apart the record of a practice from the capability to actually perform it, and locate exactly where, if anywhere, the two came apart. You'll run that method on a case of your own for the case dossier, test it on yourself with the reproduction attempt, and use it to argue a position of your own in the seminar paper — including, if you choose, on the live and unresolved case in week 11.
Who it is for
Anyone who can read a documented historical or organisational case closely and argue from it — no engineering, materials science, or technical background is assumed, and week 4's case is deliberately kept at the level of institutional history rather than technical detail. If "we have the manual, so we still know how" is a sentence you've never had reason to doubt, this course is aimed at you.
Where to go next
Seminars
The twelve weekly cases, in order, starting with the distinction the whole course rests on.
Assessment
Three pieces of work, weighted 30/25/45, all built on the same method.
People
Who teaches the course and how to reach them.
Glossary
Every term the course relies on, defined once and linked from every week that uses it.