CRITICAL EFFECT
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 755 ▶ |
| Object type | General information, Methodology or model |
An effect in a process which significantly changes the course or even the nature of the process.
In some cases the critical effect can either put an end to the process and eventually damage or destroy the system that depends on it.
Any critical effect corresponds to an overshooting , i.e. the crossing of the threshold at which the process or systems loses its dynamic stability and turns totally irreversible . An example is the rupture of an aneurism, the effect resulting from a peak of blood pressure (the immediate cause within a protracted arterial degradation process)
The sudden effect is so dramatic that it end the very process that produced it, and initiates the total destruction of the concerned living system .
It is the case of the “camel's broken back”in the popular saying: the camel is doomed.
Epoch making historical events are thus considered because they usher new and very different social and political processes, i.e. while being results of anterior sequences, they mark a significant discontinuity .
See also
Chaos, Destructuration, Disasters, Disintegration, Disturbance, Emergence, Node (Critical), Nucleation mechanism