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 Avsec, Stanislav
Year 2026
Publisher Systems (MDPI), 14(1), 5
Kind of work article
Discipline Education
Reading level technical
Kind of engagement scholarly
Read it at the publisher 10.3390/systems14010005
This study examined whether the systems thinking approach integrating information and communication technology (ICT) and digital tools (hereafter referred to as the STICT approach) improves technological and engineering literacy (TEL) and related outcomes for pre-service preschool teachers. Although there is an expectation for preschool teachers to develop TEL, evidence-based models that systematically combine systems thinking with digital tools and ICT support remain scarce. Using a quasi-experimental design (n = 44; one-semester experiment), the experimental group explicitly integrated systems thinking and digital tools, while the comparison control group followed the traditional approach to teaching design, technology, and engineering (DTE) content; both groups focused on making products for preschoolers. The outcomes included multidimensional literacy, attitudes towards DTE, self-reported systems thinking, aspects of engagement, and focus group reflection. The analyses (ANCOVA/MANCOVA, regression/PLS, multi-group tests, thematic analysis) revealed notable results, including a higher post-test literacy for the experimental group and a lower perceived difficulty with technology. Both groups improved in the self-assessment of systems thinking, with no differences between them. The qualitative findings supported the educational value of the approach. In this pilot classroom experiment (n = 44), findings are consistent with an advantage of the STICT approach on the TEL composite and with lower perceived difficulty of technology, whereas self-assessed systems thinking improved similarly in both groups. Given the small sample and multiple outcomes, estimates carry considerable uncertainty and should be read as preliminary. We theorise that TEL gains arise primarily from systems thinking processes applied during design/evaluation, with ICT functioning as a cognitive-and-motivational scaffold that makes relations/feedback explicit and reduces perceived difficulty; self-assessed systems thinking improved in both groups.
The researchers examined whether a semester-long learning approach that explicitly combined systems thinking, DSRP, and digital tools could improve technological and engineering literacy among pre-service preschool teachers. They compared students using the systems-thinking-based STICT approach with students receiving a more traditional, linear approach to design, technology, and engineering instruction.
Reports that the DSRP-guided, technology-supported systems thinking approach improved participants' technological and engineering literacy and their capacity to develop age-appropriate products.
Applies DSRP theory as the organising framework for an ICT-supported systems thinking intervention with pre-service preschool teachers, explicitly mapping established systems thinking dimensions onto the four DSRP patterns.
A semester-long DSRP-guided, technology-supported approach with pre-service preschool teachers, reported to improve their technological and engineering literacy and their capacity to develop age-appropriate products.
Patterns it shows D, S, R, P
Shows it makes a difference
Added 2026-08-18
How to cite this Avsec, Stanislav (2026). Systems Thinking in the Role of Fostering Technological and Engineering Literacy. Systems (MDPI), 14(1), 5.