We are made up of trillions of cells each performing their part as part of a larger complex system that is our mind/body system. Under a microscope, a skin cell is unique with subtle differences with its neighboring skin cells.
Yet, at the macro level, we are also a single entity — a human being.
Both perspectives are true at the same time. This complementarity is a hallmark of complexity theory and fractals.
This leads to the idea of the interconnectedness of life at all scales. The Brain Is Not an Autocrat. At every scale of life, we are part of a complex network of interactions giving way to larger and larger structures of complexity and emergence.
Everything only looks like a thing from a particular vantage point. If we zoom out from the individual interactions of parts that make something up, those interactions are hidden from view by the higher-level emergent properties of those interactions.
If we zoom back in, the emergent character disappears into the active phenomena from which it emerged.
What we see in life very much depends on our perspective.
Life is inherently connected. We don’t live in the universe it; we embody it.