Emergence Memes

The optimistic physicist's journey from "I just need to understand particles!" to crushing reality. On the left path, condensed matter physics reveals that even "simple" particles create mind-boggling emergent properties (like how water molecules somehow make waves and whirlpools). On the right path, quantum field theory laughs in your face with particles that aren't even particles but excitations in fields that sometimes act like waves and sometimes like particles and sometimes like they're having an existential crisis. This is basically physics saying "you thought understanding was an option? That's adorable!"