When the functioning of certain things is a matter of life and death.
A theorem, by definition, has a proof. In our figurative case, we will leave the concrete facts to prove the concept. What we will do briefly, however, is not only propose the statement of the theorem, but also give you some elucidation on the criticality of its importance.
Statement:
Given a factory tasked with producing hand grenades, it will produce both working and non-working hand grenades. A defective hand grenade causes the death of the user, a successful one can save the life of the thrower and/or eliminate an enemy or an enemy asset.
The bomb is an interesting object: she does not know where she is, who she is with, when she is in the air. All she knows is that, once the safety is off and the retardant charge is triggered, she does what she must. The bomb is a straightforward object, it does not mince words, it waits for its moment in silence, but above all: it is futuristic!
As we have mentioned, the bomb can work or fail: like any concrete human product, it can have technical problems, and it is the task of the factory that produces it to come close to perfection and zero percent failure, at least to prevent it from exploding in the hands of the person who threw it… presumably a soldier who is on the same side as the company that made the bomb and the state that financed it. A company that does its job ‘right’ will not have too many problems setting a very high safety standard for these patient objects.
But in a world where thermodynamic bureaucracy influences from within the dynamics of the company by increasing subcontractors, interfaces, financiers, approvers, certifiers of approvers, certifiers of certifiers of approvers, female quotas, compliance with safety regulations 9501/765048^n, mandatory employee training in equal opportunity and anti-money loundry, it is not so trivially obvious that the end product will work properly. The real risk is that sooner or later, the soldier at the front will find himself holding an object that can harm him in two ways: either by exploding in his hand, killing him, or once thrown not exploding, the enemy has time to respond by killing our soldier.
The important thing is that the soldier, despite being innocent, gets killed. He croaks because of something decided and carried out far away from him. The corporation harms him and society (State). He can invoke no reclaim for defective object, no 1-star review.
Why is this figurative theorem important? Because nowadays we are beginning to see drastic drops in the quality of objects. It is not only planned obsolescence, but it is above all a poor realisation of software, services and products caused by capitalism’s need to scratch the bottom of the barrel more and more in order to earn four cents more per piece produced, per second saved and so on. Who loses out? The little soldier!, who finds himself using the tool he has generally paid for or trusted. The more intricate society is (thermodynamic bureaucracy), the more the toy soldier is left alone.
A corollary to the theorem is that: if we are full of non-functional hand grenades… one strategy is to sell them to a presumed enemy.
This is an invitation to think it over and start doing for yourself what you can no longer trust others to do (better not to buy anything anymore). Or have someone you know do it for you. The only thing that will keep us human is the connection with the soldier. Of course, I deny myself because it is not the only one, but that is not the point.