{
  "id": "trap.undesirable",
  "term": "trap",
  "sense": "undesirable",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 15,
  "arena": "general",
  "domain": "emergent",
  "style": "window",
  "definition": "a window whose parameter is easy to drift into and hard to drift out of",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "window.range",
      "drift.aimless",
      "parameter.condition",
      "maintenance.upkeep",
      "easy.effort",
      "hard.difficulty"
    ],
    "interaction": "drift.aimless pushes the parameter across the boundary of window.range, while easy.effort and hard.difficulty asymmetrically influence entry and escape, modulated by maintenance.upkeep.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "asymmetric accessibility",
      "unintended persistence",
      "passive capture"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant required continuous cooling after shutdown, but power loss made it hard to maintain, leading to meltdowns.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "Once a person starts using high-dose opioids for pain, reducing dosage often causes severe withdrawal, trapping them in dependence.",
      "domain": "biology"
    },
    {
      "text": "Detroit's city budget fell below service costs in the 1980s, making tax increases politically impossible and service cuts inevitable.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "trap",
    "trapped",
    "trapping",
    "traps"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "retrofit:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "Sample/hundred-words-six-terms.md"
    ],
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "components",
      "note": "windows.opening omitted — though evocative, it is not constitutive; the 'window' here refers to window.range, a parameter range, not a physical opening."
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-trap.undesirable"
}