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Canaries were used in mines to signal pockets of unbreathable gas; they would die before the humans giving them an opportunity to escape.

Canary has developed into a standard term for warnings which are detecting the danger allowing mitigation as opposed to predicting the danger which would allow avoidance.



> Canary has developed into a standard term for warnings which are detecting the danger

More succinctly, a canary is an early warning system.


This is exactly what I was trying to avoid saying, what kills a Canary kills a human, yet fire isn't always what triggers the fire alarm




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