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 Silberman D
Year 2025
Publisher Journal of Systems Thinking 5(1):1-10
Kind of work article
Discipline Psychology
Reading level technical
Kind of engagement scholarly
Read it at the publisher 10.54120/jost.v25i1.ds3mov1
Discovering a new cognitive Move in systems thinking is “comparable to identifying a new species in biology or a new molecule in chemistry — a novel structural configuration composed of the atomic elements of thought defined by DSRP.” 1 New Moves reveal a reusable structure of thought that transcends content and applies across disciplines. The Co–everything Move, proposed by Dave Silberman, is such a discovery. It is the 204th Move formally validated and entered into the Universal Cognitive Move Registry (UCMR). The Move makes explicit the structural conditions necessary for all “co–” processes, including communication, cooperation, and coordination, by applying perspectival equivalence within the action/reaction system. Through this equivalence, both actors are recognized as symmetrical participants within a shared relationship-object, revealing the structure that allows any “co–” process to exist. This paper presents the Co–everything Move, details its composition through DSRP, and demonstrates its cognitive and practical significance across contexts such as leadership, project management, coaching, therapy, education, and everyday relationships.
A notice of discovery: the Co-Everything Move, the 204th Move validated and entered into the Universal Cognitive Move Registry.
All "co-" processes — communication, cooperation, coordination — share one structure: perspectival equivalence between symmetrical actors within a shared relationship-object.
Announces the Co-Everything Move, a new cognitive Move that sets out the structure behind all "co-" processes such as communication and cooperation.
A new Move contributed to the Universal Cognitive Move Registry, the 204th in the canon. Engagement of an unusual kind: not applying the theory or assessing it, but adding to its canon, which requires working inside its formalism.
Patterns it shows R, P
How to cite this Silberman D (2025). The Co-Everything Move: Notice of Discovery for a New Cognitive Move in Systems Thinking. Journal of Systems Thinking 5(1):1-10.