As part of my last dialogue I briefly skimmed over the general attributes of the two classes of particles: Bosons and Fermions. The focus hitherto was mostly on group behavior of humans and the desire to conform to larger groups, but I failed to properly discuss the beauty of what makes us individuals. As stated previously, fermions can never be in the same state even though all fermions of the same class, like electrons, protons, and neutrons, are a manifestation of the same governing quantum field. This means that although all, say, protons, are identical in principle, they can always be distinguished from their quantum numbers. Humans, with their egos: our own personal fears, ambitions, desires, and position in this world are always distinct.

I came across a word recently called Sonder: it’s the depression you feel once you realize that everyone is at the center of their own stage and all those countless extras about you are all actors in the play of your life. Though this feeling gives the individual ego a boundary from which to distinguish itself, we immediately feel alone and far away from those around us. We’re all at the effect of the influences of our environments and upbringings, which is a static constant, yet we’re all distinctly unique from these initial laws governing how our personalities develop. But it’s that exact delusion of being at the center of it all that separates us. We are taught it from a very young age and it has a quaint parallel with the universe: any expanding system has no center and any one point can be defined as the center since everything expands away from it uniformly. Quite literally can you define yourself as the center of the universe, but it’s completely arbitrary because everyone can.

This parallels exclusion for fermions as such: Due to the exclusion principle and the requirement that identical fermions fall into different states is the only reason why solid matter forms at all. Without a universe built up of protons, neutrons, and electrons, there would be no such thing as depth. You’re 99.99999..% (I forget how many 9’s) empty space, but due to the exclusion of electrons (and not electric charge) do you not fall through the ground around you. From this, exclusion gives us depth and a reality in which we can live in. This would not exist without the so called “degeneracy pressure” that each electron exerts on others due to the requirement of different states of identical electrons. As that Cloud Atlas quote goes “What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops.”

So from this I hope that one can appreciate their individuality and the beautiful fact that everyone else is just doing the best that they can with what they’ve got and what they’ve been given.