Who makes sure everything works?

I was driving with my son when he was 8 or 9 years old, along one of the ring roads around Madrid. I think we were going to buy something or drop him off at a birthday party. I don't remember the exact moment, but I do remember the situation with photographic clarity in my mind. We were in the middle lane, passing under an electronic road sign. My son was sitting in the back seat, which makes me think he still needed a booster seat, so he must have been no older than 9. And right then he dropped his innocent little question: "Dad, who makes sure everything works?"

My immediate reaction was to think we were about to have an existential conversation about the idea of a supreme intelligence and universal order. It ended up being more prosaic. He wanted to know who wrote the messages on the electronic road signs telling drivers to slow down, or the traffic restrictions for entering the city center because of some event.

That conversation truly stayed with me. Who is ultimately responsible for the established order? Why does everything work (or not work)? In a child's mind, "everything works" when they've been raised in a safe environment where their basic survival is guaranteed and their emotional security is a given. Under those circumstances, everything is enjoyment. They live in the present. Now, at 13, our conversations aren't as deep, and they're just as valuable. Perhaps a child's innocent questions are the greatest source of progress for an adult willing to listen, and the best breeding ground for building a better world.

A child's innocent questions are the greatest source of progress for an adult willing to listen, and the best breeding ground for building a better world.

Why do we die? Is someone in charge of making sure everything works? Where do the Three Wise Men live? It's curious that whenever we asked complex questions, it was always hard to find the right person to take on the reflection that followed.

Back around 2010, I remember playing at asking Siri questions at night under the covers, about her existence, her creators, her gender, and her capacity to fall in love. Today, I admit I've asked those same questions again, a decade later, to ChatGPT, sitting at the computer. And I admit the machine gets considerably better when you invite it to reflect on humanity's questions that still remain unanswered:

• Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is there a universe instead of simple non-existence?

• What is the purpose or meaning of life? Is there an inherent purpose, or is it something we must define for ourselves?

• What is consciousness? How does the subjective experience of the mind arise from matter?

• Is there life after death? Is there something beyond our earthly existence?

• Are we alone in the universe? Does intelligent life exist elsewhere in the cosmos?

• What is the nature of time? Is time absolute or relative? Can time be reversed?

• How did the universe begin? Although the Big Bang is the prevailing theory, there are still many unknowns about the "moment zero."

• Do parallel realities or multiple universes exist? Are there other universes besides our own?

• What are dark matter and dark energy? They make up most of the universe's content, but they remain largely mysterious.

• Can science and religion coexist? Are they mutually exclusive, or can they complement each other?

• What determines morality? Is morality absolute or relative? Is it innate or learned?

• Is conscious artificial intelligence possible? Can machines reach or surpass human intelligence and have their own subjective experiences?

If I go the traditional route and type the original question into a search engine (I chose Google), the answers turn out to be surprising, to say the least, depending on the language and depending on my browser (completely biased by my previous conversations) or on incognito searches:

Google searches for the question: who makes sure everything works?:

[Incognito search in English - "Who is in charge of making it all work?"]:

• Book Summary: Making It All Work Book by David Allen

• Make Time for the Work That Matters

• Manage your team's work, projects, & tasks online • Asana

• WORK | English meaning - Cambridge Dictionary

• How some people get away with doing nothing at work

• Hybrid Work Is Just Work. Are We Doing It Wrong?

• The idea of God and reflections on Leadership [Non-incognito search mode]

[Incognito search in Spanish - "¿Quién se encarga de que todo funcione?"]:

• El cerebro y el sistema nervioso (para Adolescentes) (The brain and nervous system, for teens)

• Conoce 5 funciones del director general de una empresa (Learn 5 functions of a company's general manager)

• ¿Sabes de qué se encarga el director general de una empresa? · El desarrollo y la implementación de proyectos, así como de políticas legales y su actualización. (Do you know what a company's general manager is responsible for? · Developing and implementing projects, as well as legal policies and their updates.)

• Sistema operativo (Operating system)

• 7 Roles de un equipo de trabajo ⭐ clave para tu ... (7 roles of a work team ⭐ key for your ...)

• ¿Qué son los recursos humanos? Repasamos conceptos (What is human resources? A review of concepts)

• Facility Manager [Search with my Google profile]

Yesterday I got back from Buenos Aires, and I saw posters of candidates for the presidency of the Argentine Republic with chainsaws, sending the message of tearing everything down in order to rebuild it. And curiously enough, sending the message "¡Viva la Libertad Carajo!". In moments of hopelessness and disillusionment, breaking with the established order seems like a good recipe for populist leaders looking to channel discontent toward the system. And it's still an easy recipe for a complex question. Let's tear it down and rebuild. And yet we're still without an answer to the question: who is responsible for order, for the system? Who is responsible for making sure everything works?

If today I had to gather the courage to answer my son Mateo's question without the help of any algorithmic assistant, I would answer "Love." Everything works (and this in itself is already a judgment) when we accept the other as a legitimate other. Love is ultimately responsible for everything (sort of) working. And it's the best recipe for stopping the evangelists of chaos.

everything works (Harmony prevails) when we have known how to see difference as a source of creating wealth.

25 years after Google's creation, the world has perhaps become more individualistic and more polarized. Perhaps the order of "every man for himself" now reigns, along with the spirit of "criticize the other side." Them and us. The good guys and the bad guys. And perhaps we've forgotten that everything works (Harmony prevails) when we have known how to see difference as a source of creating wealth. When we admit that our freedom ends where the other's freedom begins. When we have known how to integrate a win-win mindset. Carlo Cipolla wrote, in his satirical essay on human stupidity, in his third fundamental law of human stupidity, and I quote verbatim: "A stupid person is a person who causes harm to another person or group of people without, at the same time, gaining anything for themselves, or even at a loss to themselves. (...) All of us remember occasions when, unfortunately, we were dealing with someone who made a gain by causing us harm: we were facing a villain. (...) The stupid person is the most dangerous type of person there is. (...) The stupid person is more dangerous than the villain.".

If I win and someone else loses, there's no net prosperity. When difference, what's different (what isn't normal) is accepted as part of peaceful coexistence, only then is it possible to generate growth and prosperity for everyone. Only then is it possible for everything to work. Perhaps we're missing conversations and unanswered questions between diverse beings with diametrically opposed opinions and ideologies in a polarized society dominated by disillusionment.

We're missing conversations and unanswered questions between diverse beings with diametrically opposed opinions and ideologies in a polarized society dominated by disillusionment.

And in conversation, only in the exchange of different opinions, is it possible to prosper (and escape stupidity). And for that, it's necessary to respect the other person. And to evolve from perceiving the other as "the opponent," to perceiving the other as a "legitimate other." And isn't that acceptance of the other's legitimacy a possible definition of love? *. Perhaps we already have the answer to the initial question: Who makes sure Everything works? All you need is...

[*] Definition of Love by Humberto Maturana (1928-2021), Chilean biologist and philosopher.