# reason (causal)

a cause for a meaning of why something happens

- Computed level: L10 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday  ·  Arena: common

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [cause](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-cause.reason), [meaning](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-meaning.significance), [happen](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-happen.event-occurrence), [mean](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-mean.signify)

**Through:** the cause and the meaning interact through the event to signify why a change occurs

**Novel properties:**
- causal significance
- explanatory role
- why-reference

## Examples
- The 2003 Northeast Blackout spread because a single Ohio relay failed, triggering cascading grid failures across eight U.S. states. *(engineering)*
- The extinction of the passenger pigeon followed habitat loss and industrial-scale hunting in late 19th-century North America. *(biology)*
- Bitcoin transactions are verified because miners solve cryptographic puzzles, creating blocks every ten minutes on average. *(computing)*

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