Albert Einstein
Out of My Later Years, ch. 12 (1950, rev. 1970).
Quoted here
"What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias, that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest."
"Fraud is a pathology. I doubt that non-scientists realize how concerned all scientists are to purge any detected incident. The reason for our loathing is not widely understood, and its basis is not abstractly moral. Science must be based on trust. ...-- A page on this site on / Fraud /
We must believe that the publications of our colleagues are presented in good faith, for only then can we analyze their work to discover errors. Fraud is the worst of all offenses -- a violation of community standards that must be respected and internalized, lest the community die.
Error, on the other hand, falls into the category of unavoidable side consequences to commendable activity .... In any proper taxonomy of scientific activity, error belongs in the category of proper procedure -- for three major reasons:
1. People work this way. We are fallible creatures. Ambiguity defines the richness of our intellectual lives. Computers frustrate us because they display the inhuman property of shutting down when faced with any error or ambiguity; we have had to establish an entire profession -- debugging -- to mediate between our two opposing styles.
2. Work of intellectual daring carries the danger of increased error, in both frequency and consequence. If they wished to avoid all possibility of error, Galileo would have trained his telescope on the next building, and Darwin would have stuck with pigeons. Intrusive regulation by nonscientists is most frightening for this reason; innovation and chanciness will die. Error is the flipside of great discovery. Together they form one coin, and their common currency is brilliance.
3. Error is a spur to correction. Errors promote good science, if only because one-upmanship seems as intrinsically human as error itself. 'False views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness', Darwin wrote, in one of his most famous lines.
Great intellectuals have always understood this principle, and have been accepting of honorable error and fiercely intolerant of fraud."
"Here's the wrapper from a bottle of "Mt. Shasta Drinking Water" which my good friend Jim Gardner brought to my attention. He purchased it in South Florida for 99 cents. Being a curious sort, Jim wondered why Florida tap water wasn't good enough to consume, at about zero cents a pint. What he discovered should not surprise us a bit.-- Hmm, I don't find a website for BCI / Beverage Canners International, and they apparently aren't a member of the International Bottled Water Association / IBWA . (Huh. They apparently had http://beveragecanners.com/ through May of 2001, but it apparently isn't functioning now. They may be DBA as http://www.nationalbeverage.com -- I'm having trouble sorting out the corporate hype on the site.)
Mount Shasta is in northern California, near the Oregon border. This label tells the buyer/consumer:
'Pristine Mt. ShastaTM Water has been a source of pure refreshment for well over a century. We believe that it is the finest water that you can find at any price.'
Sounds good to me, and it did to Jim, too - until he noticed that the water was "Bottled by BCI, Miami." Of course, BCI ("Beverage Canners International") could have water shipped in from California, but that seems an expensive procedure, when it could have been bottled right there at the source. BCI says on the label that this water is treated by "reverse osmosis, carbon filtration, ultraviolet treatment, membrane filtration to 2 micron absolute, and ozonation [sic]." The real kicker here is the further notice right on the label that the source is actually the municipal water supply of Miami, Florida! This is tap water! ...
The same company, BCI, bottles "Appalachian Springs," "Fiji Water," "Hawaii Water," "Jordan Valley," "Keeper Springs," "Mt. McKinley," "Saratoga Springs," "Vitamin Water," "West Virginia's Pride of the Mountains," "Yellowstone Headwaters," and "Zephyrhills" water, as well. You don't suppose that they all come from the City of Miami taps too, do you?"