# running on empty (capacity)

*Ordinarily means:* Feeling very tired and having no energy left to keep going.

A state where energy capacity has drifted near the wall of exhaustion, and maintenance can no longer hold the thing inside its window of function.

- Computed level: L19 (depth in the emergence graph, not abstraction)
- Status: review  ·  Domain: everyday human experience

## Emergence
**Emerges from:** [energy](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-energy.capacity), [drift](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-drift.aimless), [maintenance](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-maintenance.upkeep), [exhaustion](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-exhaustion.capacity), [window](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-window.range), [wall](https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-wall.range-end)

**Through:** The phrase reports a slow, unmanaged drift in energy capacity, where ongoing maintenance is insufficient to counter depletion, bringing the system to the edge of functional collapse.

**Novel properties:**
- emergence of failure despite continued effort
- invisible approach of functional end

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