Everything is Connected

Everything is Connected

4 September 2025

One blackout is enough to remind us: everything is connected.

When the lights go out on the island or when the internet drops, we suddenly realize how dependent we are on systems we usually take for granted. When electricity fails, telecommunication fails, because they are connected. On this platform of energy and communication, everything connects.

Take the hospital as an example. Yes, it has its own generators and can operate as a stand-alone system—for a while. But even that autonomy is temporary. The truth is: nothing really stands alone.

Yet, because we fail to perceive this connectedness, we often think the solution is to disconnect. We install a generator or solar panels with a battery, so our household can survive when the grid collapses. But this is a short-term illusion. No house, no hospital, no island truly exists outside the web of interconnection. The same applies to expertise: the blackouts we experience could be prevented if the experts on the island ended their isolation and connected their knowledge to serve the whole.

And it’s not just utilities that connect. People connect. Human beings need to come together to create and sustain these systems, these platforms of connectivity. When we lose connectivity, it is not simply because of failing wires or broken infrastructure—it’s because of the missing human connections behind them.

Philosophers and scientists have reminded us of this truth for decades. From quantum physics to Eastern philosophy, the message is the same: everything is connected. We are particles in a greater flow, threads in the same fabric. When we deny this, we fool ourselves.

Here lies the paradox: although we are deeply connected, we strive for independence, individuality, and even isolation. We celebrate this as freedom. Yet the irony is that many of our most significant problems—from mental health struggles to literal blackouts—stem from disconnection.

The way forward is not more isolation, but reconnection. To resolve our issues, we need to restore balance: balance between economic development, nature, and people. Balance between freedom and community. Balance between individuality and the common good.

Because in the end, everything is connected.

The Call

It’s time to stop celebrating disconnection and start building bridges—between people, between systems, between humanity and nature. Only then can we create a future that is sustainable, resilient, and whole.

Miguel Goede