What if it's true about Tron?

Jack7 · Jan 18, 2012

What if every electron in the universe was all the same exact particle?

Umbran · Jan 18, 2012

Okay, here's the thing though, that the author misses: replace "electron" with the name of pretty much any other fundamental particle, and the essay remains the same.

That is, yes, all electrons are identical. But so are all the other fermions - all the protons are the same, all the neutrons are the same, all the neutrinos and quarks are the same. It goes for photons and gluons too.

And it gets sticky, when you consider that you can slam an electron into a positron (which in this picture is slamming the one electron into itself as it travels backwards in time), and have them annihilate into two photons (which are also identical), which can then decay into cascades of other identical particles.

Which may well then say that there's really only *one* particle. Ever. It just goes back and forth, forward in backward in time, annihilating with itself and creating other versions of itself, each traveling forwards and backwards in time.

Which is either supremely elegant, or completely crackpot.

Jack7 · Jan 18, 2012

I think it's elegantly crackpot.

And yeah, the idea had occurred to me that it could be any and all particles that are One.

It's one of those things though that even if true, we really can't make use of without fundamentally different technology.

So, pragmatically, to me, it doesn't matter.

Still, it is a very interesting idea I think. Because of the philosophical, intellectual, and spiritual possibilities.

And it would probably make a good sci-fi story...