# going viral (excess)

*Ordinarily means:* something spreading quickly and widely through a population

when a whole moves beyond the sum of its parts because interaction among parts creates more copies than maintenance can limit

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: social dynamics  ·  Arena: information spread

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [interaction](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-interaction.process), [copy](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-copy.replication), [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep), [whole](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-whole.complete), [greater than the sum](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-greater-than-the-sum.excess)

**Through:** word-of-mouth.excess

**Novel properties:**
- scale.parameter

## Examples
- The 2016 'Distracted Boyfriend' meme replicated across 150,000+ parodies online, overwhelming copyright takedown efforts. *(computing)*
- Rumors of water shortages in São Paulo in 2014 spread faster than officials could correct, spurring panic buying. *(institutions)*
- The 1986 Chernobyl reactor surge caused fission reactions to cascade beyond control rod limits in 3 seconds. *(physics)*

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