{
  "id": "red-flag.warning",
  "term": "red flag",
  "sense": "warning",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 16,
  "arena": "model and trust",
  "domain": "social dynamics",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a small sign that a model has been wrong for longer than it has been reporting",
  "folk_gloss": "a sign that something is wrong or risky",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "model.representation",
      "error.mistake",
      "time.dimension",
      "notice.perceptual",
      "trust.reliance"
    ],
    "interaction": "trust",
    "novel_properties": [
      "delayed recognition of model failure",
      "erosion of trust in established patterns"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Therac-25 radiation therapy machine delivered lethal overdoses after safety flags were ignored for months.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Lehman Brothers reported consistent profits while hiding growing exposure to subprime mortgages in its quarterly filings.",
      "domain": "economics"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Mars Climate Orbiter disintegrated in the atmosphere due to uncorrected unit confusion in navigation data.",
      "domain": "computing"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "red flag"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "phrases:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.7,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — model and trust"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-red-flag.warning"
}