Having established that nothing can "break" because everything that exists "works" by virtue of existing, it would be useful to find out if this means anything. I know the answer of course but, since you've come this far, it's obvious that you do not. Well round up your Animal Crackers and grab a beer because I'm going to reveal all.

There are only two possible states in the physical universe: Things either exist or they do not. A non-existing "thing" is a kind of contradiction, an oxymoron, but that doesn't diminish its affect on the human mind. In fact we humans burn far more calories pondering "things" that lack the attribute of actual existence than we do on "real" stuff. We have created a universe out of the invisible threads of our thoughts, woven into a fabric of intricate design, dyed with numberless invisible colors. We wrap ourselves in this fabulous cloth and pretend we're not naked. Our universe, our home, is in our minds.

The concept of function is very basic to our reality. Things happen for a "reason". Nothing is really random. Everything is, at least potentially, predictable. Function suggests that one thing will lead to another and what will follow will be determined by what went before. All of existence is like a machine and the ultimate purpose of our existence is to master it. Mastery of the machine is mastery of everything. But all this really says is that is the way we choose to understand things.

Our minds work that way so we assume that everything else must also. We have confused the way we think about things with the things we think about. We can't really tell the difference between the object of thought and the thought itself. If the universe "out there" is random and unpredictable and eternally unknowable, we will never know because our minds require order and tidy structures. We require that the logic we employ to solve problems in our reasoning be equally applicable to the universe. We expect and demand that the universe be reasonable.

That's where the universe in our minds becomes abstracted from the universe outside. We expect events to proceed with a nice regularity so that is what we perceive. We project these expectations onto the real universe of real phenomena and tell ourselves that we've discovered reality. We pretend that our perception can neatly overlay the physical world and there will be a perfect match. But if our perception exactly matches reality, what is the point of thinking about it in the first place? Why not just acknowledge what's there and move on?

Fact is, we prefer our internal universe to the one "out there". By creating this internal universe we have, in effect, repudiated the one outside. We build things and then animate them with our expectations. We are incapable of distinguishing between a thing's form and its function. We are sorcerers and conjurers, dabblers in supernatural powers and all the while we deny the possibility of anything supernatural.

And that, at last, makes the point: you can only fix something if you believe in its function. To become adept at fixing things, to become a master, you must first believe in the existence of your non-existent universe. The whole process hints at a strange species of insanity but, since we all believe pretty much the same things, there's really no way to know.