{
  "id": "can-of-worms.opened",
  "term": "can of worms",
  "sense": "opened",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 19,
  "domain": "model and reality",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "a thing priced by the model as one bounded item, whose opening reveals coupled contents that will not fit back because each pulls the next.",
  "folk_gloss": "a problem that turns out to be many tangled problems once you start on it",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "model.representation",
      "price.economic",
      "container.object",
      "open.spatial",
      "connection.social",
      "single.quantity",
      "boundary.limit",
      "inside.spatial"
    ],
    "interaction": "The closed container lets the model price the contents as a single item; opening replaces that one boundary with the contents' own couplings, and since each item pulls its neighbours, no smaller container will hold them again.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "single-item pricing of coupled contents",
      "coupling revealed by opening",
      "no re-containment"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Renaming one function touches forty files, and each file's diff touches two more.",
      "domain": "software"
    },
    {
      "text": "Discovery requested on one contract produces the counterparty's whole filing cabinet.",
      "domain": "law"
    },
    {
      "text": "Opening one wall converts a bathroom estimate into a house estimate.",
      "domain": "renovation"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "can of worms",
    "open a can of worms",
    "opened a can of worms"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-08-22",
    "confidence": 0.8,
    "sources": [
      "folk phrase — the model meets reality"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-can-of-worms.opened"
}