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 Prill, Patrick
Year 2025
Publisher Test Pappy
Kind of work press
Discipline Computer Science & AI
Secondary disciplines Systems Science
Kind of engagement public
Applied false
To compare the vocabularies for system concepts the author has worked with, setting Donella Meadows's elements against the four DSRP patterns, as the third entry in a daily series on learning to see systems.
A short blog post structured as a comparison. Prill summarizes the Meadows vocabulary he has used for about a decade, then sets out each of the four patterns in his own words, using abstract placeholders rather than a case from his own practice.
Prill states a present preference for DSRP, crediting the Cabrera Lab podcast as one of the best things that happened to him in 2024, and claims the four patterns always co-exist and make complex systems easier to dissect and understand. He values the Meadows vocabulary too, for describing systems simply, and does not formally rank the two. He leaves open whether time is a separate dimension or a kind of perspective.
A software tester compares Donella Meadows's system concepts with the four DSRP patterns, explains each pattern in his own words, and reports that he now prefers DSRP for organizing information into mental models.
Prill begins from Meadows's Thinking in Systems, read a decade earlier, whose basic elements he gives as stocks, inflow and outflow, with actors, feedback loops and motivations, and notes that these few elements describe a lot of systems simply. He then writes that 'What I'm more a fan of at the moment is the DSRP approach from Derek and Laura Cabrera,' which he found through their podcast, and that 'You can organize information with those four patterns to form mental models.' He takes each pattern in turn. Distinctions 'means what is and what is not,' and he adds that you describe the boundaries of the system, of the model, and of certain elements — making the point that describing what is outside sharpens what is inside. Systems 'stands for elements of the model,' 'divided into whole and parts,' with every element splittable into its parts, which lets a reader zoom in and out. Relationships 'is about the action and reaction between elements,' and he observes that this is where complexity becomes visible, once one sees how many elements are connected in any system. Perspectives 'is about point of view of the system,' and he notes that 'The perspective can be from anywhere in and around the system,' including from an element or from a relationship. He closes with the claim that 'These four patterns will always co-exist.'
Prill states all four patterns accurately, with the identity-other and part-whole pairs intact, and gets right the two points most often lost in secondary accounts. The first is that a perspective can be taken from anywhere in or around a system, including from an element or a relationship, rather than belonging only to a human observer. The second is that the patterns co-exist rather than running in sequence, which is what distinguishes the theory from a four-step method. His open question about time is answered within the theory: a temporal view is a perspective taken on a system, which is why before-and-after can be distinguished without adding a fifth pattern. The post explains the patterns abstractly, with placeholder elements rather than an example from testing practice, so it shows what the four are without showing them at work. One defect: the DSRP hyperlink points to the Wikipedia page for Thinking in Systems rather than to DSRP.
Patterns it shows D, S, R, P
Added 2026-10-19
How to cite this Prill, Patrick (2025). System Seeing Adventure – Day 3: Explore System Concepts. Test Pappy.