Study investigates collapse of natural or social systems

[pscot]

A tipping point is a critical threshold at which a dynamical system undergoes an irreversible transformation, typically owing to a small change in inputs or parameters. This concept is very broad and can refer to the extinction of an animal or a plant species, the depletion of a water source, or the financial collapse of an institution, among many other natural and social phenomena.
....
"But what our study showed, and this is its main contribution, is that for certain cyclical phenomena, the dynamics of the system last for a certain time after the tipping point, and this persistence may mask the transition itself," Medeiros said. "Take an endangered species, for example. It may have passed the point of no return and become irreversibly doomed. Nevertheless, individual members of the species continue to exist and reproduce in the wild. This transient effect conceals the fact that in the long run, the species is already extinct. In our study, through numerical simulation, we succeeded in observing this transient effect following the singularity that configures a tipping point."
Thus, the fundamentals of a phenomenon change irreversibly at the tipping point, but owing to a kind of "residual effect" the process appears to retain its original characteristics for a time, masking the transformation that has occurred.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-05-collapse-natural-social.html#jCp

[GliderGuider]

1. Homo sapiens is a species, right?

'Nuff said.

[defacto7]

2. We done tipped over already...

Most just don't know it.

[GliderGuider]

3. Pretty much. nt

[Ghost Dog]

4. I think viable populations will survive the mass die-off,

but what is thought of as 'modern advanced civilisation' will not, at least not above, socially, medieval feudal or earlier slave-based levels, with or without some smart technology, even with more than >5°C warming.

That is, assuming some will survive the worst 'bottlenecks' - nuclear war and pandemic disease, and leaving aside such events as asteroid strikes and supervolcano eruptions or, um, alien invasions or infestations...