# death by a thousand cuts (drift)

*Ordinarily means:* many small injuries that together cause failure

drift that narrows the window until a parameter that was safe crosses a wall because maintenance did not increase as the range decreased

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: linguistics  ·  Arena: everyday language

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [drift](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drift.aimless), [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep), [parameter](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-parameter.condition), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end)

**Through:** noun

**Novel properties:**
- emergence.novel_properties

## Examples
- The 2019 Boeing 737 MAX crashes followed repeated MCAS adjustments that narrowed safe flight parameters without corresponding maintenance or training updates. *(engineering)*
- The Aral Sea shrank by 90% after decades of unchecked irrigation diversions reduced inflow while maintenance of water-sharing agreements decayed. *(environment)*
- MySpace lost user engagement share to Facebook as feature bloat narrowed performance margins without scaling infrastructure upkeep. *(computing)*

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*Canonical: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-death-by-a-thousand-cuts.drift*  
*Structured data: https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-death-by-a-thousand-cuts.drift.json*  
*Every definition provably resolves to space, time, energy and pattern.*