First collisions at the LHC with unprecedented Energy! (Ask a particle physisicist)

[Whateverist]

OK, I'm lost already.
But I'll take a shot at demonstrating my ignorance.
Particles trade particles to other particles to make particles or to change particles or to hold particles together against other trades of particles.
But we don't know what a particle is, just how it acts, what it does.
Its sort of particle economics with trades of derivative products which are composite things that don't really exist except for the purpose of trading things to other things on the NYSE to eventually make real things like cash or land ownership.
Sorry, I can't do the math so I have to talk in metaphors.

So in these exchanges, do the 'real' particles know about each other in order to trade 'unreal' particles?
Do they find out about each other by 'fields' (other things whose only evidence of existence is what they do to other things.)
If all these interactions are by exchange of particles, how do the 'real' particles pick which virtual particles to exchange?

[DISCLAIMER=whateverist]Just have to interject to kudos Julia here for a nice piece of lay-quality particle physics theorizing. I'm sure Alex is impressed and more than a little concerned for his job security.][/DISCLAIMER]

So again, you wonder whether or how we can talk about particles without knowing what particles actually are. As I have alluded to earlier, I don't think this is necessarily in the realm of science - but - I also believe that we regularly leave the realm of science when we talk about nature. This is a deep philosophy of science question and I am no philosopher of science, so I can only offer you a half baked cake of my own making. I think the question what particles really are, might possibly not be a valid question. My impression is that we can't help but talk about the objects and goings on in the world in terms of our theories about these objects, and that only in the framework of a theory a multitude of phenomena can be unified into a single object.

So are you saying that even if tables are extremely porous that a case can be made for the existence of dinette sets?