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 Fang et al.
Year 2026
Publisher Astronomy & Astrophysics
Discipline Astronomy
Read it at the publisher 10.1051/0004-6361/202659945
Cosmic voids identified in weak-lensing (WL) convergence maps provide a projected probe of underdense regions in the matter distribution. However, the physical connection between these WL voids and voids defined in the 3D large-scale structure remains unclear. We investigate the correspondence between voids identified in the 3D halo distribution and those detected in WL convergence maps. We used 108 realizations of the full-sky lensing simulations, populated with a source galaxy redshift distribution consistent with the Dark Energy Survey Year 3 sample. Catalogs of 3D halo voids and WL voids were constructed using the VIDE and tunnel algorithms, respectively. The spatial association between the two populations was quantified by measuring the angular excess number density of halo voids around WL void centers. We detected a statistically significant (S/N ≳ 25) positive correlation between WL voids and low-redshift halo voids (0 < z_ hv < 0.5) at small angular separations, indicating that WL voids trace genuine underdensities in the large-scale matter distribution. The correlation amplitude closely depends on the WL void selection scheme and decreases when stringent peak-amplitude thresholds are applied, thereby reducing the number of detected WL voids and broadening their effective sizes. The signal also displays a strong redshift dependence: halo voids at higher redshift exhibit weaker correlations because of the declining efficiency of the WL kernel, while WL voids identified from higher-redshift source bins produce stronger correlations due to the increased contribution from line-of-sight structures. We additionally examined the impact of halo-void morphology and found that rounder voids with a weaker alignment along the line of sight display marginally stronger associations with WL voids. Our results provide new insights into the contribution of 3D structure to WL-selected underdensities and offer guidance for future observational analyses seeking to interpret WL voids as tracers of the matter field.
Using 108 full-sky weak-lensing simulations matched to Dark Energy Survey Year 3 parameters, the authors found a statistically significant (S/N ≳ 25) positive correlation between voids identified independently in 2D weak-lensing maps and in the 3D halo distribution at low redshift.
The same cosmic voids are identified across two observational perspectives—2D weak-lensing maps and direct 3D reconstruction—showing that changing perspective changes what is observed without changing the underlying structure, independently instantiating Perspective and Distinction.
Patterns it shows D, P
Added 2026-08-06
How to cite this Fang et al. (2026). The correlation between voids identified in 3D large-scale structure and 2D weak-lensing maps. Astronomy & Astrophysics.