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 Jiewei Zhan, Changle Pu, Zhaoyue Yu, Yongqiang Liu, Jianbing Peng
Year 2026
Publisher Engineering Geology
Kind of work article
Discipline Geology
Secondary disciplines Engineering
Applied false
Read it at the publisher 10.1016/j.enggeo.2026.108595
The discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling technique is a critical method for revealing the three-dimensional structural characteristics of rock masses and predicting the connectivity and stability of fractured rock masses. Constrained by the dominant bedding planes, discontinuities in layered rock masses often intersect with bedding planes to form characteristic T-type topological structures. Considering that existing DFN modeling techniques are unable to accurately reproduce this structural characteristic, this paper proposes an innovative hierarchical method for spatial structural modeling of layered rock masses. First, a three-dimensional fusion model of outcrop is constructed using optical images and point cloud data collected by UAV photogrammetry, on which the geometric parameters of discontinuities are extracted. On the basis of the interpreted discontinuity data, a characterization study is subsequently conducted on the orientation, major axis rotation angle, size, and spatial point distribution of the discontinuities. By introducing a hierarchical modeling method based on the sequence of bedding planes, strata-bound discontinuities and non-strata-bound discontinuities, the limitations of traditional methods in simulating the unique intersection relationships of discontinuities in layered rock masses is effectively addressed. In addition, the Latin hypercube sampling is employed to determine the position of non-strata-bound discontinuities, which effectively reduces the edge effects in the DFN modeling process. Finally, a layered rock mass discrete fracture network model is constructed using an outcrop from a highway slope in Chongqing as a case study, and the effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through both geometric characterization and topological structure analysis. This work provides a universal methodology for spatial structural modeling of layered rock masses and has good application prospects.
To develop a modeling method that accurately reproduces the three-dimensional structural network of layered (bedded) rock masses, addressing a limitation of existing discrete fracture network methods in representing how discontinuities intersect bedding planes.
A single field case study: a rock outcrop on a highway slope in Chongqing, China, characterized using UAV photogrammetry point-cloud and optical image data.
A hierarchical discrete fracture network (DFN) modeling method was built by sequencing discontinuities into levels (bedding planes, then strata-bound discontinuities, then non-strata-bound discontinuities) and using Latin hypercube sampling to place non-strata-bound discontinuities; the resulting model was validated against field-measured geometric and topological structure of the outcrop.
A hierarchical model that sequenced discontinuities by bedding-plane level reproduced the characteristic T-type intersection topology of a layered rock mass more accurately than treating discontinuities as a single non-hierarchical set, as validated against a real highway-slope outcrop in Chongqing.
The finding shows that a whole rock mass's structural network is only accurately reconstructed by explicitly modeling its nested levels of parts (bedding planes, strata-bound and non-strata-bound discontinuities) in sequence rather than as a single undifferentiated set, illustrating a part/whole systems structure.
Patterns it shows S
Added 2026-09-26
How to cite this Jiewei Zhan, Changle Pu, Zhaoyue Yu, Yongqiang Liu, Jianbing Peng (2026). Modeling the spatial structural network of layered rock masses using an innovative hierarchical method. Engineering Geology.