system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Is the electron more of an event than an object?

I watched cosmos episode 5 just now, and NDT was talking about the electron and electron orbitals. He was talking about how the electron doesn't really show a continuous trail that we can see, but rather kinda jumps from orbital to orbital. My question is, what if the electron is not an object, like a ball or cow, but a happening. if water is the object or the field, then there are many forms like waves but also droplets. What if the electron is just the shape of something, and not the something itself?

I hope that makes sense, I have a terrible time getting my thoughts out.
gpt
I think the best answer is "not more so than any other fundamental particle." 

The "reality" of quantum physics is still somewhat opaque and more of a philosophy question than a physics question. We have mathematical models of how these things behave, and they are *extremely* good models for the everyday cases (in terms of experimentally-verified predictions). We have interpretations or analogies of what the math means. But they're just analogies, and there are several competing interpretations that we can't verify or compare by experiment just yet, so the "true" nature of things is still subject to interpretation and opinion.

But to answer your question directly: Yes, you can think of electrons (and other particles) as an event. You can model fundamental particles as excitations in a ubiquitous field. This model is perfectly acceptable and accurate in some contexts, and in fact is the most convenient model in some contexts. "Some contexts" meaning that sometimes you want to view things as a wave, and sometimes as a particle, because quantum.