{
  "id": "moving-target.drift",
  "term": "moving target",
  "sense": "drift",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 13,
  "arena": "social_systems",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "A parameter that changes without cause, making the window of success close before it can be reached.",
  "folk_gloss": "A goal or condition that keeps changing and is hard to hit.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end"
    ],
    "interaction": "A thing that is not the same as another thing changes the pattern of another thing.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "wall.range-end"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "In 2019, California's rolling blackouts shifted peak restriction hours unpredictably, leaving households unable to align generator use.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "The International Space Station's orbit decays by up to 100 meters per day due to atmospheric drag, requiring regular reboosts.",
      "domain": "physics"
    },
    {
      "text": "U.S. immigration policy under the 2020 MPP program relocated processing sites monthly, delaying asylum applications by months.",
      "domain": "institutions"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "moving target"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — drift nobody noticed"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-moving-target.drift"
}