Point of no return
The point of no return, or the Rubicon, is the point beyond which someone, or some group of people, must continue on their current course of action. Either they physically cannot turn back, or doing so would be prohibitively expensive or dangerous.
A particular irreversible action (e.g. setting off an explosion, or signing a contract) can be a point of no return, but the point of no return can also be a calculated point during a continuous action (such as in aviation).
Origins
The term PNR, point of no return originated as a technical term in air navigation to refer to the point on a flight at which, due to fuel consumption, a plane is no longer capable of returning to its airfield of origin. After passing the point of no return, the plane has no option but to continue to some other destination. In this sense, the phrase implies an irrevocable commitment. Another aviation use is the point during the takeoff roll when there is no longer enough runway ahead of the aircraft to safely stop; at this point the aircraft is committed to take off.
It may be noted that the PNR is, for non-stop flights, beyond the half-way (more exactly, the "equitime") point, as airplanes carry spare fuel. For example, on a 2000-mile flight, should the tanks have enough fuel for a 3000-mile flight, the half-way point would be at 1000 miles, but the PNR at 1500 miles.
In mountain aviation, the phrase is sometimes used in a completely different way to refer to the point at which the grade of the terrain "outclimbs" the aircraft-- that is, the point at which a crash is inevitable, being a parallel in common usage. The phrase can also be used to mean inevitable disaster.
In its metaphorical sense, passing the point of no return can be used synonymously with crossing the Rubicon — taking a course of action with significant and irreversible consequences.
The use of crossing the Rubicon derives from the crossing of the river Rubicon by Julius Caesar in 49 BC, who thereby violated Roman law and rendered armed conflict inevitable. As Caesar said at the time: "alea iacta est" ("the die is cast").
Causes
Points of no return arise because many actions are not reversible. If a property developer decides to demolish a tower block to make way for a new stadium, the act of setting off the explosives is a point of no return. Once the tower block has been demolished, it cannot be undemolished (except by re-building it, which is expensive and time-consuming).
Points of no return can arise because of sunk costs. Consider the act of travelling from Paris to Moscow by air. If the traveller decides to buy a non-refundable air ticket, then the cost of the ticket becomes a sunk cost. If the traveller subsequently discovers that it would have been cheaper to travel by rail, he or she cannot take advantage of that new knowledge without losing the cost of the air ticket and can only regret the earlier decision of choice.
False Rubicons
In human behaviour, individual as well as collective decision-making, point of no return have become a popular metaphor denoting a stage in an undertaking, project or the like, where the person or people involved are unwilling to stop and think about what they are doing. Instead, they hasten to continue on their chosen course of action while ignoring counter-arguments or evidence that would suggest a change. This process of self-deception, in which a "false" point of no return is assumed, thus typically results in a "real" point of no return and irrevocable commitment to the cause in question.
The flaw in the analogy concerns the inevitability of having to go on in the same direction. Whereas the pilot really has no sensible alternative to carrying on, generally humans at critical points in their lives are still free agents and thus do have the power to change their course of action. If they decide not to do it, it may be because they are afraid of doing it and are trying to avoid exposure, criticism or ridicule. If one turns back to where one started, one admits that most of the things one has been doing since departing have either been wrong, too difficult or too terrifying to proceed with. Accordingly, changing one's mind and one's course of action is the more difficult of the two options, even when that would be the better decision. What is more, the farther one has already proceeded, the more difficult it is to return. This phenomenon leads many people to believe that for them, a complete change of course is impossible.
However, although this definition isolates and highlights the human tendency to continue onward in the face of accumulating jeopardy, there is also an antithesis to the case in that people alone or as groups will tend to continue to repeat a mode of action or proceed without changing direction only when the perceived cost of altering course outweighs the benefit of implementing a change. The proviso to the main clause is that the cost of implementing fundamental change does not always or even usually come for free.
Ultimately humans will tend to adopt whatever course of action they perceive will benefit them or the causes they identify themselves through.
Other uses
In American slang, the "point of no return" is often used to refer to a situation where a couple gets so intimate that the male can no longer hold off sexual intercourse. With the growth of such phenomena as date rape, its use in this context has become extremely controversial and is usually discounted [citation needed].
During sexual intercourse, it can also refer to the moment at which stopping the act (as used in coitus interruptus) does not prevent ejaculation in the male. The point of no return comes after the orgasm is already underway yet has not yet fully climaxed.
In The Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, "Point of No Return" is the title of a song in the final act, first sung by the Phantom and Christine in an Opera. In this version of the song, it refers to the inevibility of the sexual relationship between the characters Christine and the Phantom (in disguise) are playing. Later, the song is reprised by the Phantom as he forces Christine to choose between loving him or having Raoul, her real love, killed.
"Point of No Return" has been the theme or title of many recorded songs. Artists recording songs entitled "Point of No Return" include Exposé, Nu Shooz, Duran Duran, The Smithereens, Kansas, Elvis Costello, Napalm Death, Rage, The Stylistics and many others.
In computer and video games
Some video games contain a "final area" in which the player(s) cannot revisit previous areas of the game once the boundary is crossed. Final areas usually contain a final boss, final dungeon (often capped by a final boss or final series of bosses), or some similarily game-ending encounter. Attempting to cross such a boundary is usually met with a warning informing the player. Such instances of a point of no return typically occur in single-player role-playing games, such as "EarthBound" and "Mario and Luigi: Partners in Time".
References
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