In article <1993Oct21.033210.17769 at alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca> mroussel at alchemy.chem.utoronto.ca (Marc Roussel) writes:
>> To say that two particles interact is to say that they are able to
>affect one another's state. (In quantum mechanics, two particles
Not quite: two particles interact if they affect each other. To say
that they are *able to* affect one another is to say that they have
*the potential* to interact.
>interact if the single particle states are not eigenstates of the
>Hamiltonian.) Now suppose that some configurations of a many-particle
>system eliminate a set of interactions such that a subsystem becomes
>insulated from interaction with particles outside the subsystem. Such
You mean like putting your head in a bucket?
>configurations would tend to persist. Complex systems can be built up
>by iterating this mechanism at higher and higher levels of
>organization.
> I'm not quite sure I follow the rest of his argument, but I'll try
And I don't follow why an island of stability leads to a complex system
through iteration.
Richard
