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Math of Pragmatism in the Real World

[by, uh, me]

The old question — what’s the difference between moral relativism and pragmatism?

Truth is math. Most people stop there and accept it as a ‘single truth’.

But the real world is different.

Patriotic pragmatism agrees with ONE TRUTH, but it’s ‘advanced math’.

It calculates dynamically and factors in deadlines — windows of opportunity that will close. For example: FDR and Truman accepting communists as allies during WWII [Stalin, Mao, and Tito]. That is the ‘advanced math’ of patriotic pragmatism.

Students learn the math of pure theory which tends to be static.

And then there is the messy side of math that factors in the need to solve unforeseen problems, the dynamics of growing problems, the dynamics of trusting/hoping that others might solve problems in the future, shifts in human behavior, etc. In fact, many math formulas are about randomness.

For example ...

World’s first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily...
http://www.techinsider.io/spreads-robot-farm-will-open-soon-2016-1

Currently, people assume that we will need cheap labor to harvest lettuce. They assume that human error will cause ecoli to spread over lettuce. Others might jump to the conclusion that the need for cheap labor is gone at this moment.
Both are wrong.

A smart farmer might try to build up a cash reserve until he or she knows more about this project. If it’s already cost effective — how does it turn out?

1. What are the costs?
2. How much attrition will the robots suffer?
3. Will counter-measures against theft of robots be sufficient?
4. What will be the availability of these robots?
5. What are the logistics of repairs? Will there be enough technicians near a given farm?
6. Is the programming in the current robots sufficient?
7. How quickly will their programming improve?
8. How will the price of these robots shift in the future? [Odds are costs will drop.]
9. Then factor in our current Wall Street Roller Coaster — how could that affect this innovation?
10. Are there temporary components? How much will they cost in the future?
11. Will some parts routinely break down? And what assurances are there against spare part price gouging?
12. Is there a need for constant online streaming to make these robots work? How buggy would that streaming be? What will the hidden costs be in that area? Is sabotage of the online streaming easy or likely?

Messy, messy math. Each answer to each question has one truth, but in reality there are many truths that overlap. It often renders previous questions redundant.

Normally, a farmer would ‘test the waters’, maybe dip a toe, etc. That is what ‘real world’ savviness leads to. And such a strategy could be calculated in math formulas founded on pragmatism rather than ‘pure theory’.

Of course, to a farmer it’s just common sense. But to a government bureaucrat? An agressive Food and Drug Administration might want to mandate that farmers modernize immediately — only robots touch lettuce. Less ecoli risk. And lawsuits could argue that a farmer who failed to use robots caused unnecessary risk to consumers.

Thus, some ‘single truths’ without pragmatism can hurt us. ‘Free market forces work best’ is the ultimate pragmatic math formula.