*big grin* LH!

Asimov wrote a good windup paper once - he was working with some stuff in his lab which dissolved as soon as it was added to the solvent, and someone said, "If this stuff was any more soluble, it'd dissolve before we put it in". Which got Asimov thinking, so he wrote a mock paper on it, complete with fake references. The theory went that the stuff had precognitive properties, so it would dissolve slightly before it entered the solvent. He then says about the obvious cause and effect problem - what happens if you push the stuff towards the solvent, and then yank it back in the time between when it dissolves and when it reaches the solvent? The answer of course is that it doesn't dissolve - the stuff knows that you were going to yank it back so it wouldn't've been dissolved anyway. :-)

Incidentally LH, the problem with the theory is that each particle is only doing what it wants to, therefore it can change its mind. If gravity only happens bcos every particle in your body _wants_ to head towards the middle of the Earth, you have to consider the possibility that at some point they may change their mind and you'll float off! :-) It also begs the question of what you are - every particle has intelligence, but you're made up of particles. Is your intelligence then just provided by one electron in your brain, and all the rest of the substance of your body just happens to want to hang around with that electron? What happens if they fall out, and your arm runs off on its own?

Grab.