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.
Try a different term or clear the filters.
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 Romm N, McIntyre-Mills J
Year 2023
Publisher Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-11
Kind of work chapter
Discipline Systems Science
Secondary disciplines Environment & Sustainability
Reading level technical
Kind of engagement scholarly
Read it at the publisher 10.54120/jost.0000028
The chapter offers a way of systemic thinking linked to a systemic ethics in which thinkers and actors strive to re-generate life chances of people and the living systems on which they depend. The argument takes into account the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of 2015, and extends these by propounding an ethic of inclusive wellbeing: this is based on appreciating (along with many authors advocating the relevance of Indigenous worldviews for sustainable ways of living) our connectivity to others, and nurturing compassion across all forms of life. The chapter spells out some possibilities for activating a non-anthropocentric ethic in (all) our relationships, while focusing on facilitating/strengthening our own and others’ capabilities for recognising that everything we think and do to living systems matters. Our thinking shapes the material world of which we are part. Put differently, our ways of observing/interpreting “systems” are not innocent in their consequences. The chapter offers two examples of taking co-responsibility with others for the understandings and values that affect the ongoing development of social and ecological life. Some implications for protecting the global commons as a matter of social and ecological justice are expected.
A chapter linking systemic thinking to a systemic ethics of re-generating the life chances of people and the living systems they depend on, extending the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
An ethic of inclusive wellbeing — non-anthropocentric, informed by Indigenous worldviews — recognizes that our ways of observing systems are not innocent in their consequences; two examples show co-responsibility in practice.
Offers a way of systemic thinking tied to an ethic of inclusive wellbeing that extends the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Published in the Handbook of Systems Thinking (Cabrera, Cabrera & Midgley, eds., 2023), a volume built on the premise that systems thinking now has a universal theory—DSRP-484. Its contents were selected on that basis by its editorial team in concert with a team of advisors.
Patterns it shows R, P
How to cite this Romm N, McIntyre-Mills J (2023). Systemic Thinking for Re-Generative Development. Journal of Systems Thinking 3(1):1-11.