# over the edge (threshold)

*Ordinarily means:* something has gone too far and cannot be undone.

a parameter that drifts past a wall where the window ends, and the thing continues but is no longer bounded by what held it before.

- Computed level: L14 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: emergence  ·  Arena: phenomena

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

**Through:** crossing without removal

**Novel properties:**
- crossing without removal

## Examples
- In 2003, the Northeast Blackout began when a tree branch in Ohio crossed a power line, triggering cascading failures across the grid. *(engineering)*
- The Aral Sea shrank by 90% after rivers feeding it were diverted for Soviet cotton irrigation in the 1960s. *(environment)*
- Bitcoin's block size limit was exceeded in 2017, causing transaction delays and a fork into Bitcoin Cash. *(computing)*

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