  The present paper presents a new general conception of interaction between
physical systems, differing significantly from that of both classical physics
and quantum physics as generally understood. We believe this conception could
provide the basis for a coherent understanding of several classes of natural
phenomena that until now have been studied only in a piece-meal fashion. These
include 1) the universal tendency for physical systems to associate together
into stable dynamic formations; 2) the seemingly unlimited capacity for
generation of physical objects in Nature, including the emergence of coherent,
quantized states in physical systems of the most varied nature; 3) the
existence of close couplings between processes whose characteristic
length-scales, frequency- and energy-ranges differ by many orders of magnitude.
The proposed conception first emerged in connection with experimental studies
of the nonlinear behavior of coupled electromagnetic oscillators, and the
discovery of two fundamental phenomena that had been overlooked in the
classical theory of oscillations. The essential features of these phenomena are
summarized in the first two sections of the paper, after which we indicate how
the underlying physical principles can be combined under a single notion of
interaction, providing a mechanism by which a practically unlimited wealth of
physical objects could be generated by the interaction of just a few. The final
section puts forward some preliminary ideas about the electromagneto-mechanical
dual nature of physical objects as oscillatory processes, suggesting a
universal scope for the proposed conceptions.
