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E2 Voting and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

created by mrichich

(idea) by mrichich (1.4 mon) (print)   ?   (I like it!) 1 C! Sun Dec 17 2000 at 23:36:15

Sometimes, I really want to know the current rep of a writeup, usually because I'm curious as to the collective's opinion on it, in an attempt to improve my own noding skills.

However, to see the rep of a writeup, I have to vote on a writeup. Voting on a writeup changes its reputation. This is analogous to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle which states that any observation of a system will change its configuration or state, and that, in fact, the state of the system is not merely unknown, but undefined, until an observation is made.

However, E2 voting is not fundamentally quantum mechanical in nature, because you know the exact effect your vote has on the writeup's rep. You can then extrapolate to know what the rep was before you changed it. Now, however, the next person who wants to know the writeup's rep will do the same, further perturbing the system. One can only hope that these perturbations reflect what may be the true rep of a writeup, over time, as more observations of the system are made.


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