Science Quote by Lewis Thomas

Thomas turns a familiar scolding into biology: error isn’t a moral failure, it’s a design feature. Coming from a scientist who wrote with an essayist’s cadence, “built” and “coded” are doing quiet cultural work. “Built” evokes anatomy, the stubborn physicality of being human; “coded” borrows the language of genetics and, by extension, the emerging computer age that was beginning to treat the mind like software. The line compresses two modern faiths - engineering and information - and then flips them. If we are “coded for error,” perfection isn’t the natural endpoint of progress; it’s a misunderstanding of the organism.

The intent is partly corrective. In labs, mistakes are data. In public life, mistakes are shame. Thomas bridges those worlds, nudging readers away from purity fantasies: the fantasy of the flawless expert, the spotless institution, the risk-free technology. The subtext is almost political. Systems that demand errorlessness tend to punish the vulnerable and reward the good liars. By framing error as native, Thomas undercuts the punitive appetite that treats slipups as proof of unworthiness.

Context matters: mid-to-late 20th century science was expanding public trust in “the code” - DNA, cybernetics, medical mastery. Thomas doesn’t reject that power; he humanizes it. The sentence is also a backdoor defense of curiosity. If error is inevitable, then the question isn’t how to eliminate it, but how to build cultures - scientific, civic, personal - that learn quickly, admit cleanly, and iterate without cruelty.