English Language · English

While developing scientific understanding we are always mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error bars a little, and to add to the body of data to which error bars apply. The error bar is a pervasive, visible self-assessment of the reliability of our knowledge. This makes us always accept uncertainty about scientific facts. You often see error bars in public opinion polls ('an uncertainty of plus and minus three percent', say). Imagine a society in which every speech in the Congressional Record, every television commercial, every sermon had an accompanying error bar or its equivalent. Select the statement that best expresses the conclusion useful to the public from the argument above.