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 Gil-Reyes et al.
Year 2026
Publisher Journal of Climate
Discipline Climatology
Read it at the publisher 10.1175/jcli-d-25-0164.1
Tropical Atlantic variability (TAV) in sea surface temperature (SST) exerts a significant influence on the climate of surrounding regions. The Atlantic Niño (ATLN) is one of the leading modes of TAV, with a primary peak in summer (June–July) and a secondary peak in early winter (November–December). This study aims at exploring the atmospheric response to winter ATLN, as it has been much less documented than the summer ATLN. Coupled and atmosphere-only simulations with the climate model European Consortium Earth System Model (EC-EARTH) have been performed and analyzed to investigate the extratropical teleconnection of the winter ATLN in the North Atlantic–European (NAE) sector. Results show a tropical Gill-type structure, baroclinic and symmetrically straddling the equator, whose amplitude increases from November–December to January–February. In the extratropics, the atmospheric circulation displays a wave-like dipolar structure with cyclonic anomalies at midlatitudes and anticyclonic anomalies at subpolar latitudes, which is different from the North Atlantic Oscillation. This wave train response includes the feedback from both stationary and transient eddy activity. The associated precipitation anomalies show a robust signal over NAE. Differences in statistical significance are found when comparing observational data with model results, although the spatial patterns are similar, particularly in early winter. These findings enhance our understanding of the potential impact of the winter ATLN and suggest it could represent an untapped source of predictability.
Climate model simulations show winter Atlantic Niño sea-surface warming drives an extratropical wave train — cyclonic anomalies at midlatitudes, anticyclonic at higher latitudes — with North Atlantic-European precipitation anomalies that intensify from November–December into January–February.
A teleconnection is action and reaction across distance: a change in one place produces a specific change in another, with the direction of the effect established.
Patterns it shows R
Added 2026-08-03
How to cite this Gil-Reyes et al. (2026). Tropical–Extratropical Teleconnection of the Winter Atlantic Niño in a Climate Model. Journal of Climate.