[MD] Is the MOQ static, or a static pattern?

[ARLO JAMES BENSINGER JR]

[Craig]
Notice Pirsig does not say here that truth is provisional, but that explanation is.

[Arlo]
Are you suggesting, within the MOQ, there is 'truth' that is NOT provisional? Pirsig was contrasting the pursuit of 'truth' (SOM) with the pursuit of 'something better' (MOQ). 

[Craig]
By 'useful' do you mean has an actual use or has a potential use? It is true that a speck of dust on the far side of the moon has an actual shape, but this might not be actually useful.

[Arlo]
I don't mean "useful to you", if that's what you mean. A speck of dust has a shape because the inorganic components of that speck of dust have found value in attaching themselves is such a way. If there was no value in those attachments, the 'speck of dust' would never come to exist.

And it is not "true" that the speck of dust has an "actual shape" (this sounds like outright objectivism, Craig). A moth may 'see' that dust in an entirely different 'shape'. There is no 'true' or 'actual' shape, just shared usefulness in ordering experience. 

[Craig]
That is enough to show that 'true'/'right' are different concepts than 'useful'.

[Arlo]
>From an SOM-perspective, as you've described, sure. And you need to let go of your centrism (ego or species) and realize that in a MOQ 'usefulness' doesn't mean 'useful to Craig' or 'useful to people'. As I said, cancer cells exist because that arrangement has proven useful for that pattern's reproduction/replication.

[Craig]
What if a sailor used a map to successfully navigate between two islands of the East Indies, then later discovered it was a map of the West Indies?


[Arlo]
As long as he could continue using the map to navigate as he needed, it would be 'right' (useful) to him. 'Wrong' would have no meaning here, it would only come into play if he used the map in such a way that led him to make errors or be unable to navigate. Then he would seek, instead, a more useful map. 

Sailor: I used this map to get to this island.
Craig: But that's the wrong map.
Sailor: It got me here, so it was the right map to use to help me navigate.
Craig: But its wrong!
Sailor: Not to me, its the right map for everything I need to do.

Of course, in a different context, say a cartographer cataloging the East Indies, that map would not be useful. In that context, the map may be described as 'wrong' as it is of no use to that cartographer. And in an even larger context, saying cataloging the globe, it becomes 'right' aka 'useful' again.

The map is never 'right' or 'wrong' (true or untrue), it is always provisionally useful until something better comes along.