the.com/propagation
How one bad idea, signal, or crack becomes everyone's problem.
means The spreading or multiplying of something — a wave, a plant, a rumor, a crack — from one point outward until it's everywhere.
from From Latin propagare, 'to set forward, extend, multiply' — originally a gardener's word for pegging down a vine shoot so it roots and makes a new plant. The root 'pag-' relates to fastening or fixing in place (kin to 'pact' and 'page'). So the word's deepest image isn't chaos spreading — it's a cutting staked into soil, taking hold, and growing outward on its own.
- physics sense
- waves traveling without the medium going anywhere
- biology sense
- plants cloning themselves instead of bothering with seeds
- networking sense
- delay between you sending it and the internet agreeing
- error propagation
- one wrong digit ruins every calculation after it