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 Haoyu Li, Lijuan Wang, Zhihong Jiang
Year 2026
Publisher International Journal of Climatology
Kind of work article
Discipline Climatology
Read it at the publisher 10.1002/joc.70587
Based on the ERA5 reanalysis data, precipitation data provided by the China Meteorological Administration, and the Met Office Hadley Center Sea Ice and SST dataset, this study investigates the characteristics of midsummer flood‐drought abrupt alternation (FDAA) in North China and its correlation with Atlantic sea surface temperature (SST) by using the water vapour budget equation and the moist static energy (MSE) budget equation. The results indicate that FDAA, primarily driven by the anomalous vertical advection of moisture, occurs frequently in North China during midsummer, with dynamic processes playing a dominant role. In drought‐to‐flood years, the blocking high on the eastern side of the Ural Mountains guides cold air southward, while the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) is anomalously extended northward, leading to the convergence of cold and warm air over North China. Concurrently, North China is located on the northwest side of an anomalous anticyclone that extends from the Korean Peninsula to Japan over the northwest Pacific in the lower troposphere. This configuration induces southerly winds that transport high moist enthalpy air, especially warm air, into North China, favouring the transition from drought to flood. The opposite pattern is observed in flood‐to‐drought years. Quantitative analysis using the dynamic adjustment method reveals that the circulation component exhibits spatial correlations of 0.72 and 0.59 with the wind anomalies in DTFs and FTDs, respectively. Thus, the anomalous anticyclone (cyclone) in the northwest Pacific plays an important role in influencing FDAA in North China during midsummer. FDAA in North China is closely related to the tropical Atlantic SST anomaly (SSTA). In positive SSTA years, the tropical Atlantic SST warming in July can enhance convective activity in the Atlantic basin, which alters the Walker circulation and produces a sinking motion in the central Pacific. An anticyclonic circulation is generated over the northwest Pacific and centered around 20° N. Under the influence of prevailing northerly winds, precipitation decreases, resulting in a dry period in North China. The positive SSTA in the tropical Atlantic, which persists from July into August, promotes a northward shift of the anticyclonic circulation towards the southeast of North China in August. At this time, southerly winds prevail in North China, leading to anomalous upward motion and resulting in a transition from drought to flood. In negative SSTA years, the opposite pattern occurs.
To characterize midsummer flood-drought abrupt alternation events in North China and determine their relationship to Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies.
ERA5 reanalysis data, China Meteorological Administration precipitation records, and Met Office Hadley Centre sea ice and SST data for North China during midsummer.
Water vapor budget and moist static energy budget equations combined with a dynamic adjustment method to quantify atmospheric circulation contributions and their correlation with Atlantic SST anomalies.
Drought-to-flood and flood-to-drought transitions in North China were driven by opposing atmospheric circulation configurations linked to tropical Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies, with the northwest Pacific circulation component showing spatial correlations of 0.72 and 0.59 with wind anomalies in the two transition types respectively.
The finding shows a distinctions (D) structure, in which flood and drought form two abruptly alternating, mutually exclusive categorical states, coupled with a relationships (R) structure linking Atlantic sea surface temperature anomalies and atmospheric circulation to the direction of that alternation.
Patterns it shows D, R
Added 2026-09-17
How to cite this Haoyu Li, Lijuan Wang, Zhihong Jiang (2026). The Characteristics of Flood-Drought Abrupt Alternation in North China During Midsummer and Its Response to Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature. International Journal of Climatology.