Frozen Accident

'''Frozen accidents''' are according to Murray Gell-Mann events or accidents with widespread consequences all traceable to one chance event that could have turned out differently. He defines them like this: "most single accidents make very little difference to the future, but others may have widespread ramifications, many diverse consequences all traceable to one chance event that could have turned out differently. Those we call frozen accidents." ,see [http://www.edge.org/documents/ThirdCulture/zc-Ch.19.html]. They seem to shape history, but history also makes them visible in the first place. Branching processes and bifurcations, e.g. through positive [[Feedback|feedback]], can turn small fluctuations and random events into frozen accidents. Frozen accidents occur if a process is [[Path Dependence|path-dependent]] and are often the result of positive feedback. Small fluctuations or accidents at the beginning can be reinforced through the positive [[Feedback|feedback]] process to large, unpredictable deviations, until they are finally conserved for a long time in the resulting frozen '''lock-in state''', where one product dominates and allocates the entire system (for example a market).