# can of worms (opened)

*Ordinarily means:* a problem that turns out to be many tangled problems once you start on it

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.

- Computed level: L19 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: model and reality

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [model](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-model.representation), [price](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-price.economic), [container](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-container.object), [open](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-open.spatial), [connection](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-connection.social), [single](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-single.quantity), [boundary](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-boundary.limit), [inside](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-inside.spatial)

**Through:** 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
- Renaming one function touches forty files, and each file's diff touches two more. *(software)*
- Discovery requested on one contract produces the counterparty's whole filing cabinet. *(law)*
- Opening one wall converts a bathroom estimate into a house estimate. *(renovation)*

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