Wiki Uncertainty Principle

I'm not certain that this will ever be a valid contribution to Wiki.

How are you going to measure that?

If other people contribute to it you've been validated!

But the contribution has now totally changed

Warning: the mathematical formalism underpinning the following is still in early alpha.

To derive the WikiUncertaintyPrinciple from the HeisenbergUncertaintyPrinciple for quantum mechanics take {particle, position, momentum} and substitute {contribution, authorship, value}.

Populist explanation

When I first saw Wiki I assumed that I would be able to measure the value of my contributions to it over time. The paradox that has since emerged is that any time I measure the 'myness' of a contribution I lose all knowledge of its value, and once I measure the value I can no longer know how much is down to me.

Alternative formulation: The value of any contribution is not absolute but is affected (defined, even) by the observations others make about it. -- PaulHudson

So, collaborative contributions, those written and changed by multiple people, have more value than individual signed contributions, leading to the dreaded ThreadMode. I like that. -- JeffGrigg

This suggests, perhaps, the founding of QuantumWiki? being as it subtly alludes to Schroedinger's cat. (see: http://www.emr.hibu.no/lars/eng/cat/Default.htm) --DaveMorgan