Fingers of Instability

There is a long and interesting arictle on safehaven.com about critical states and how system changes can produce non-deterministic effects at these states.

The term critical state can mean the point at which water would go to ice or steam, or the moment that critical mass induces a nuclear reaction, etc. It is the point at which something triggers a change in the basic nature or character of the object or group. Thus, (and very casually for all you physicists) we refer to something being in a critical state (or the term critical mass) when there is the opportunity for significant change.