tipping point · irreversible
a wall where crossing it ends the thing's window; drift back requires more work than any force can provide.
Examples
- Arctic sea ice loss passed a point after 2007 where summer melt no longer recovers, despite winter refreeze. climate
- The 2011 Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown continued releasing radiation after cooling systems failed beyond recovery. engineering
- By 476 CE, the Western Roman Empire had fragmented past restoration, as military and tax structures collapsed. institutions
Emergence
through: When a parameter crosses a wall marking the end of its viable range, aimless drift pushes it further out, and the effort needed to return exceeds any force available.
- point of no return
- asymmetric recovery cost
- unidirectional threshold
Chain to foundations
as tree
- tipping pointL15
- wallL10
- windowL7
- parameterL4
- rangeL3
- boundaryL2 (shown above)
- persistL1 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- outsideL6
- partL1 (shown above)
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- boundaryL2 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- windowL7
- windowL7 (shown above)
- driftL11
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- changeL1 (shown above)
- goL3
- makeL4
- nothingL10
- noneL9
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- amountL8
- offL2
- spaceL0 (shown above)
- differenceL1 (shown above)
- noneL9
- wayL9
- spaceL0 (shown above)
- linksL8
- partL1 (shown above)
- connectsL7
- flowL3
- interactionL2 (shown above)
- persistL1 (shown above)
- structureL2 (shown above)
- broughtL6
- happenL2
- parameterL4 (shown above)
- maintenanceL14
- backL13
- changeL1 (shown above)
- crossL13
- forceL12 (shown above)
- provideL8
- requiredL6
- workL3 (shown above)
- wallL10
Neighborhood
Concepts that depend on this one above; what it is built from below.
Used by (1)
Relations
| is-a | threshold.boundary | used where the crossing of a boundary changes a system’s behavior |