The one-electron Universe is one of those theories that always gives me goosebumps. It essentially says that there is only one electron in the Universe traveling back and forwards in time, interacting with itself and creating everything we see. Not just the electron, of course, but every other indistinguishable particle would be singular!
This of course, is not a valid scientific theory, because electrons moving backwards in time would be positrons. And we don’t see an equal number of electrons and positrons in our Universe. It’s one of those situations where the numbers just don’t add up.
But wouldn’t it be poetic if everything in the Universe, every interaction that we see is an interaction of the same unique particle. If you’ve seen Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, you’ve had a similar experience. We are all different versions of each other, struggling to see our sameness, fighting with ourselves, amidst our crippling first person perspective of the Universe.
The truth is often stranger than fiction. But to appreciate the truth, sometimes we have to lean into the metaphors borrowed by fiction.