Originally Posted by
Cheesepuff
The non linear nature of the path is more confounding to description / categorization (stuff that happens in books and discussions) than to the actual "nature of the beast".
For example in a electrical grid, given a failure, say a transmission line outage, you would actually be able to determine what the "most at risk component" is, given this recent failure. However, as I'm sure happens in many "real life" situations, something else (considered less at risk) may actually fail and change the direction of the cascade. It is "no less" a cascade, because it took a less probable turn, or even if the next turn was not predicted at all...
Conclusion: Don't die a stupid miserable death, SS is your laminated "get out of jail free" card for the Darwin Awards.