point of no return · irreversible
Ask PrometheusA wall in a parameter's window, beyond which the thing cannot persist even though its parts do.
Point of no return (noun) means: A wall in a parameter's window, beyond which the thing cannot persist even though its parts do. It emerges from window, wall, parameter, persist: The components together establish a threshold in a condition's range where persistence fails despite continuity of parts. In the EmergenceLexicon it sits at computed level 9, chaining down to the four foundations (space, time, energy, pattern).
Examples
- In 2002 the Larsen B ice shelf in Antarctica shattered within weeks; its ice survived as icebergs, but the shelf itself was gone. climate science
- A boiled egg cannot be unboiled: all its proteins are still there, but the raw egg is gone for good. cooking
Emergence
through: The components together establish a threshold in a condition's range where persistence fails despite continuity of parts.
- irreversible threshold
- persistence discontinuity
- part-whole asymmetry
Chain to foundations
full chain as text (96 steps)
Neighborhood
Concepts that depend on this one above; what it is built from below.