# the last straw (threshold)

*Ordinarily means:* a small thing that finally causes something to break or fail.

a parameter that drifts through a wall because maintenance has ceased and the window has narrowed to nothing.

- Computed level: L15 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday-language  ·  Arena: emergence-lexicon

## 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), [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep)

**Through:** crossing-without-removal

**Novel properties:**
- emergence.novel_properties

## Examples
- In 2011, a single overheating transformer tripped the San Diego power grid, collapsing the entire network. *(engineering)*
- The Aral Sea shrank below the point where river inflows could sustain its level, leading to ecosystem collapse. *(environment)*
- A programmer ignored a memory leak in a server process until it consumed all available RAM, crashing the system. *(computing)*

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