Does anyone know where this term came from, and what the strict definition of it is? Roughly it means, care taken in the transmission of data/knowledge so that there is no corruption or loss of the data/knowledge.
I first stumbled across it while reading Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash, in reference to the Torah and the care taken in making copies of it, but in context it has a clear secular meaning.* I did some googling to see if I could find earlier/different sources for the term, but turned up bupkis.
I’m working on a project and having an official source to attribute this phrase to would be most helpful.
*p. 230 of Snow Crash if anyone is curious.