An exercise in collective inquiry and digital humanities. This lecture takes place between the French publication of Bruno Latour's An Inquiry into Modes of Existence: An Anthropology of the Moderns and the full version of the digital platform in English that allows the inquiry to unfold. This lecture will present the project both in its content - an anthropology of the moderns - and in its procedure - an exploration of the possibility of digital tools to develop academic books as well as collective research. CRASSH 'Understanding Society' lectures supported by the Thriplow Charitable Trust