Reusable cognitive primitives
Cause and effect
One thing genuinely bringing about another — as opposed to two things merely moving together. Establishing it needs a mechanism and controls, not just a pattern.
Where it appears
Dependencies & synergies
Derived from the graph’s real structure — 32 concepts across 35 disciplines carry this pattern. Every figure is a count, not a score.
How many concepts carrying this pattern are seen through each discipline.
Other thinking patterns that recur on the same concepts — the more shared concepts, the more often they co-occur.
What kinds of relationships the carrying concepts form — the relational signature of the pattern.
Concepts where this pattern does the most cross-disciplinary work — each reaches disciplines beyond its own.
- Natural selectionreachesAnthropologyArtificial IntelligenceAstrobiologyBioinformaticsBiotechnologyCell BiologyComparative LiteratureComputer ScienceDemographyEarth & Space SciencesEcologyGeneticsGeologyMachine LearningMedicineMicrobiologyMolecular BiologyPaleontologyPublic HealthSociologyStatistics
- Mathematical modelreachesBiologyBiostatisticsBusinessCalculusClimatologyEarth & Space SciencesEconometricsEconomicsEngineeringOptimizationPhilosophy of ScienceStatisticsSystems Engineering
- CorrelationreachesBiostatisticsEconometricsEconomicsEpidemiologyEthicsFinanceHistoryMathematicsMedicineMetaphysicsPhilosophy of SciencePsychologyPublic Policy
- PredictionreachesBiologyCognitive ScienceComputer ScienceData ScienceEducational ScienceEpistemologyHistory of ScienceLogicMachine LearningMathematical ModellingPhysicsSystems Science
- ExperimentreachesEducational ScienceEpidemiologyEpistemologyHistoryLawLogicMathematicsProbabilityPsychologyStatistics
- Reaction ratereachesBiochemistryBiologyChemical EngineeringGeographyMeteorologyPhysicsStatistical Physics
Carrying concepts that others in the same pattern build on (they depend on or follow from these).
- Experiment — 1 other concept build on it
- Mechanism — 1 other concept build on it
Examples across disciplines
A trial asks whether a drug causes recovery, or whether patients would have recovered anyway.
The physics of heat-trapping gases explains why rising CO₂ causes warming, not just accompanies it.
Ice-cream sales and drownings rise together, but summer heat is the hidden common cause.
How this pattern travels
Interpreted from where the pattern recurs in the atlas — structural transfer and coverage, not a claim it is universally the "best" model.
Recurs across 35 disciplines over 32 carrier concepts — a broadly transferable pattern.
structural · Structural recurrence in the atlas — a pattern is a reasoning lens, not a law.
10 of its 32 carrier concepts are themselves cross-disciplinary connectors.
structural · Structural recurrence in the atlas — a pattern is a reasoning lens, not a law.
Currently dark in the atlas: no origin recorded.
atlas representation · Describes the current Thinking OS representation, not the model itself.
Coverage matrix
How these concepts distribute across domains and concept families — real counts, not a score.
Knowledge timeline
Real, sourced key dates of these concepts.
- c. 300 BCEMathematical proof · Formalization · Mathematics
- 1858Natural selection · Discovery · Evolutionary Biology
- 1859Natural selection · Publication · Evolutionary Biology
- 1927Hubble–Lemaître law · Discovery · Astronomy
- 1929Hubble–Lemaître law · Publication · Astronomy
The statistical fingerprint
How the 32 concepts that exercise this pattern distribute — from the graph, not a ranking.
Disciplinary fingerprint
Carrier concepts under each illuminating lens.
How settled its carriers are
Epistemic status of the concepts that exercise this pattern.
✕ That things happening together (correlation) proves one causes the other.
Journeys where it shows up
You have seen this model in one place. Where else could it apply — and where would the analogy break?
Causation →Ask: if I changed the cause, would the effect change? And what else might explain the link?
- Recurs across 35 disciplines.
- 79 concepts exercise this thinking pattern.
- It is practised in 1 learning journey.
Derived from the graph — a pattern is a reasoning lens, not a law.
If you intervened and changed the suspected cause, would the effect move — or could a third factor be producing both?
Keep this question handy when you meet something new — it helps you notice the pattern, not just name it.