# cause (reason)

thing that brings about a change through interaction with another thing

- Computed level: L3 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday  ·  Arena: causes.reason

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [change](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-change.process), [interaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-interaction.process), [happen](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-happen.event-occurrence)

**Through:** change occurs when interaction between two things brings about an event that did not exist before

**Novel properties:**
- causal agency
- temporal before-and-after
- mutual dependence

## Examples
- The 2008 financial crisis began when subprime mortgage defaults cascaded through credit default swaps. *(economics)*
- A single lightning strike ignited the 2016 Fort McMurray wildfire, spreading over 590,000 hectares. *(environment)*
- The Heartbleed bug in OpenSSL allowed attackers to read private server memory undetected for years. *(computing)*

## Used by
- [agency](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-agency.capacity) (L20)
- [buffer](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-buffer.region) (L13)
- [chain reaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-chain-reaction.stacked) (L17)
- [drug](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drug.chemical) (L13)
- [effective](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-effective.useful) (L12)
- [effects](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-effects.result) (L12)
- [knock on effect](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-knock-on-effect.stacked) (L16)
- [lead](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-lead.guide) (L10)
- [mar](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-mar.damage) (L4)
- [opportunities](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-opportunities.economic) (L11)
- [reason](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-reason.causal) (L10)
- [ripple effect](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-ripple-effect.stacked) (L12)
- [sep](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-sep.verb) (L4)
- [summer](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-summer.season) (L21)

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*