[Ailist] FW: "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" Effect?

[Mark Berns]

Folks,

A thread on the ODNet list was prompted by a member's observation that there
seemed to be some change in the client system very early in his data
gathering. He asked if anyone was aware of research supporting what is, of
course, one of the core aspects of AI - that change begins with the first
question.

I know I've read and heard a lot of support for the premise but I don't know
of studies on it so figured I'd forward the question to this list. Can
anyone help?

Regards,

Mark Berns

-----Original Message-----
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 11:23 PM
Subject: [Odnet] "Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle" Effect?
  
As most of you know, I'm engaged in a project with a fairly large 
Pentagon agency - 1200 people.

I'm in the process of conducting my organizational study, interviewing 
roughly 10% or 120 people.  I'm currently nearly half way through.

I'm beginning to wonder if there might be a sort of "Heisenberg 
Uncertainty Principle" effect to conducting such a large scale study - 
whether the act of asking the questions, of trying to measure the 
situation, may actually begin to change the climate in & of itself.  
Especially in a situation like this where I'm asking questions that 
people appear, for the most part, to never have thought of asking before.

Does anyone know whether there's been any work done on a question like 
this?  Whether this possibility has been studied?

Shalom,

Robin
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