... measurement accuracy is the only fail-safe means of distinguishing what is true from what one imagines, and even of defining what true means.

..this simple idea captures the essence of the physicist's mind and explains why they are always so obsessed with mathematics and numbers: through precision, one exposes falsehood. a subtle but inevitable consequence of this attitude is that truth and measurement technology are inextricably linked.

-- robert b laughlin, a different universe,