The Universal & Atomic Elements of Organization
A falsifiable scientific theory proposing that the same irreducible structures organize both thought and reality — from the quantum to the social scale.
O-Theory proposes that four irreducible structures — Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) — form the universal grammar of organization. Rather than being merely useful ways of thinking, these structures are hypothesized to be the atomic elements from which every organized phenomenon emerges, whether in cognition, biology, physics, mathematics, society, or the cosmos.
| D | S | R | P |
| Distinctions | Systems | Relationships | Perspectives |
| Identity ↔ Other | Part ↔ Whole | Action ↔ Reaction | Point ↔ View |
| D := (i ↔ o) | S := (p ↔ w) | R := (a ↔ r) | P := (ṗ ↔ v) |
This is a living scientific evidence compendium: an open, continually evolving collection of independent empirical research, formal theory, mathematical proofs, cross-disciplinary analyses, applications, critiques, and proposed falsifications. Every entry is included because it supports, refines, challenges, or attempts to falsify the theory.
Scientific theories are strengthened not only by evidence that confirms their predictions, but also by surviving attempts to falsify them. This compendium brings both together: independent evidence from researchers who were not testing DSRP and proposed counterexamples evaluated against the formal theory.
One counterexample is enough to falsify O-Theory. Until then, the question remains: do the same four structures organize everything from quantum systems to human thought?
Independent convergence is one of the strongest forms of scientific evidence because researchers arrive at the same conclusion while investigating different questions for different reasons.
The number is not the point. Researchers in different fields, studying different questions with different methods, repeatedly arrived at the same structural predictions—almost always without testing DSRP or using its language.
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This compendium began as the peer-reviewed literature review “A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition,” published in the Journal of Systems Thinking with 109 studies. That paper is the peer-reviewed foundation. What you see here is its living, continuously updated version . New studies are checked before they are added, and the collection now holds and keeps growing. Open any card to see what the researchers found, why it bears on DSRP, and where the original review discusses it, the fuller account.
The collection is updated continuously, so the citation carries the date you consulted it rather than a study count — the count changes weekly, and putting it in the reference would make the same collection look like a different work to everyone who cites it. To cite a single claim or study, use its own address: every one has a permanent link.
This is the adversarial half of the compendium. Where the evidence track asks what converges on DSRP, this one asks what would end it: a single organized phenomenon whose structure needs a fifth pattern, a ninth element, or a fifth structural dynamic. It holds written up from candidates across territories, and resolutions — the general answers those cases settle against. Every case is published whether it held or failed, including the ones still open.
Cite this rather than the evidence collection when the point is what survived attack. The two are separate works with separate addresses: one asks what converges on the theory, the other asks what would end it, and a reference to the first does not support a claim about the second. Case and resolution numbers change when the record is revised, so cite a case by its own permanent link rather than by number.
This collection is meant to keep growing. Send us a study, paper, book or critique that bears on DSRP, whether it supports the theory or cuts against it, and we will read it and decide whether it belongs.
Authors Ryan, T.
Year 2022
Publisher Military Review (U.S. Army)
Kind of work article
Kind of engagement applications
[Article page returned its opening in summary form with embedded verbatim quotations; no formal abstract is printed.] Maj. Thomas R. Ryan Jr. proposes a mathematical modeling framework to redefine how the U.S. Army understands combat power's elements, arguing this approach offers novel insights for implementing multi-domain operations (MDO) and advocating that 'information' be elevated to formal warfighting function status. Traditional warfare domains are expanding beyond land, sea, and air to include space and cyberspace, and 'Russian and Chinese long-range fires' have fractured traditional doctrine. Verbatim from the article: combat power is 'the total means of destructive, constructive, and information capabilities that a military unit or formation can apply at a given time'; MDO requires 'convergence' defined as the 'rapid and continuous integration of capabilities in all domains' optimizing cross-domain synergy; mathematical modeling helps 'visualize old relationships leading to novel insights and deeper understanding'; the existing elements framework may represent 'cul-de-sacs leading to a dead end' of modern warfighting comprehension. The stated aim is to demonstrate how mathematical modeling can provide novel insights into the relationship between combat power elements.
A Military Review article proposing a mathematical modeling framework for the elements of combat power, aimed at implementing multi-domain operations doctrine.
Modeling the relationships between combat power's elements yields insights the existing doctrinal framework obscures — and "information" should be elevated to a formal warfighting function.
U.S. Army use of DSRP-based thinking.
Patterns it shows S, R
How to cite this Ryan, T. (2022). Warfighting: A Function of Combat Power. Military Review (U.S. Army).