[SilasX]

Citations aren't simply about "is this valid?", but about enabling others to audit the basis of the clais -- was the author they saying it based on their more nebulous "general expertise" (speaking ex cathedra), or were they relying on the credibility of other source? If the later, that makes it easier to fix when the same error was propagating through several sources to the point that became common knowledge.

(Interestingly enough, that sounds like a point Schneier would make :-p )

In fact, there's a general problem in belief updating (Bayesian or otherwise) where you may over-credit others' opinions by treating them as independent when they were both actually relaying the same data point. You can only detect this error if you can inspect the source of those opinions.