{
  "id": "no-room-for-error.threshold",
  "term": "no room for error",
  "sense": "threshold",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "everyday language",
  "domain": "emergence",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "The distance between the current parameter and the wall has become zero, so any deviation ends the thing even if the deviation is usual.",
  "folk_gloss": "There is no tolerance for mistakes.",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "wall.range-end",
      "parameter.condition",
      "drift.aimless",
      "window.range",
      "maintenance.upkeep"
    ],
    "interaction": "emergence.components",
    "novel_properties": [
      "window",
      "wall",
      "drift",
      "maintenance",
      "parameter"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Therac-25 radiation therapy machine delivered lethal overdoses when software ignored error codes due to race conditions.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2003, Columbia's final re-entry failed when a piece of foam disrupted the thermal protection system during launch.",
      "domain": "aerospace"
    },
    {
      "text": "Knight Capital's $460 million loss in 45 minutes occurred after new trading software executed unintended orders.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "no room for error"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — margin eaten by optimization"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-no-room-for-error.threshold"
}