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 Mafesson and Lachmann
Year 2019
Publisher Nature: Scientific Reports
Discipline Biology
Read it at the publisher 10.1038/s41598-019-41835-5
Contagious yawning, emotional contagion and empathy are characterized by the activation of similar neurophysiological states or responses in an observed individual and an observer. For example, it is hard to keep one’s mouth closed when imagining someone yawning, or not feeling distressed while observing other individuals perceiving pain. The evolutionary origin of these widespread phenomena is unclear, since a direct benefit is not always apparent. We explore a game theoretical model for the evolution of mind-reading strategies, used to predict and respond to others’ behavior. In particular we explore the evolutionary scenarios favoring simulative strategies, which recruit overlapping neural circuits when performing as well as when observing a specific behavior. We show that these mechanisms are advantageous in complex environments, by allowing an observer to use information about its own behavior to interpret that of others. However, without inhibition of the recruited neural circuits, the observer would perform the corresponding downstream action, rather than produce the appropriate social response. We identify evolutionary trade-offs that could hinder this inhibition, leading to emotional contagion as a by-product of mind-reading. The interaction of this model with kinship is complex. We show that empathy likely evolved in a scenario where kin- and other indirect benefits co-opt strategies originally evolved for mind-reading, and that this model explains observed patterns of emotional contagion with kin or group members.
To research the origins of empathy and emotional contagion.
Empathy and emotional contagion originated from a cognitive process or function, and not only from social cooperation or coordination. Contagious yawning, emotional contagion and empathy are characterized by the activation of similar neurophysiological states or responses in an observed individual and an observer. While organisms cannot read the minds of other organisms, they do share very similar minds to members of their own species. As a result, organisms seem to be “constantly running simulations of what other minds might be doing.” This constant simulation isn’t always geared toward cooperation but rather is something animals do spontaneously.
Perspective taking is therefore a needed cognitive act that bolsters emotional connection to others, which, as social animals, is essential for evolutionary success, in both humans and other animals.
Additionally, perspective taking is thought to be the root of empathy. Mafessoni and Lachmann 2019 researched the origins of empathy and emotional contagion. They looked at the possibility that empathy and emotional contagion originated from a cognitive process or function, and not only from social cooperation or coordination. They stated that, “contagious yawning, emotional contagion and empathy are characterized by the activation of similar neurophysiological states or responses in an observed individual and an observer.” While organisms cannot read the minds of other organisms, they do share very similar minds to members of their own species. As a result, organisms seem to be “constantly running simulations of what other minds might be doing.” This constant simulation isn’t always geared toward cooperation but rather is something animals do spontaneously. Mafessoni and Lachmann also offer that the behavior of putting oneself as an actor in another’s mind requires embodied cognition. Embodied cognition means that the mind is connected to the body, and the mind also influences the body. This plays out socially, “as an actor’s cognition is embodied, even an observer’s cognition is required to be embodied, despite the risk of accidental coordination.” Thus, the spread of empathy and the contagion of emotion occurs in the mind and body, naturally. Perspective taking is therefore a needed cognitive act that
bolsters emotional connection to others, which, as social animals, is essential for evolutionary success, in both humans and other animals.
Patterns it shows P
How to cite this Mafesson and Lachmann (2019). The complexity of understanding others as the evolutionary origin of empathy and emotional contagion. Nature: Scientific Reports.