Self sufficiency: An interesting concept in communal living or within a system made of many individuals? Where is the self? Atoms and what not interact as individuals. I am made up of atoms and what not. I interact with other folks as an individual. Individuals made of individuals. So much of my interaction with other folks is dictated by emotions and how I am feeling that I wonder if atoms and what not are doing what they do because they, too, feel like doing so.