[jhgb]

> but if you need to set up n-team cross channels then this can go up factorially (realistically it won’t, but definitely larger exponent than 2)

Isn't this a power set thing? The cardinality of a power set doesn't increase factorially.

[ivalm]

Not necessarily, Alice, Bob and Charlie talking together might not be representable through a set of <AB>, <AC>, <BC> interactions, sometimes you really need all three to be talking/listening together. Then the interaction is <ABC>.

This problem also appears in some physical materials where there are strong electron-electron correlations and so you can’t rely just on pair correlations for your calculations.

[jadeforrest]

This thread of discussion is making my day. The Coda Hale article above gets into some of the math, but this is a great critique!