The Theory

ORT Glossary

The ORT- prefix. When a word is preceded by ORT-, it should be understood according to its specific meaning in Original Reality Theory, rather than automatically through everyday usage or the meaning assigned in another field of knowledge. ORT-life is not synonymous with biological life, just as ORT-consciousness is not synonymous with human consciousness. The prefix preserves this distinction even in passages quoted out of context. In Portuguese, the corresponding prefix is TRO-.

This provisional glossary brings together definitions and syntheses of formulations distributed throughout ORT’s development documents. Entries will be revised as the exposition progresses. Where the documentation does not yet establish a complete definition, the entry itself indicates its provisional status. These concepts belong to the theory’s explanatory vocabulary; inclusion does not, by itself, constitute scientific verification.

Abstraction. An explanatory perspective distinguishing an aspect of reality. Divisions into units, relations, scales, and concepts belong to analysis; they do not fragment reality, which remains one.

Arrangement. A configuration of ORT-energy distinguishable at a particular analytical scale. A pair already constitutes an arrangement; atoms, molecules, organisms, and stars can be considered arrangements from different perspectives. Form, function, and meaning are properties in the explanatory map, not separate pieces of reality.

Self-regulation. The dynamics through which an arrangement maintains or reorganizes itself within its conditions of continuity. It involves tension, resistance, response, and a viability range. This provisional synthesis combines elements associated with the term in the documents, without assuming intention or guaranteed equilibrium.

Circumstance. Internal and external conditions present in an arrangement’s relations. They combine with its statistical configuration to constitute its state; they are not limited to external stimuli.

Classification. A grouping produced according to correspondences sufficient for a particular resolution and analytical purpose. A category can be useful without establishing absolute identity among its members.

Complexification. An increase in organizational layers and relational possibilities. It can produce emergent behaviors without erasing constituent arrangements. Greater complexification does not mean greater importance or ontological superiority.

Communication. A process in which the sender encodes a representation and the message participates in a new experience for the receiver. The receiver produces meaning according to its own state; it does not directly receive the sender’s concepts, experience, or complete state.

Statistical configuration. The configuration constituted by an arrangement’s trajectory up to a given instant. Previous experiences can reinforce, weaken, or reorganize response tendencies. It is neither a simple count nor a complete, retrievable archive of all past events. Response also depends on present circumstances.

Correspondence. A relation established by the analyzing arrangement according to its structure, state, scale, resolution, context, and purpose. Correspondence is neither absolute identity nor a property independent of the perspective establishing it.

Structural or dynamic correspondence. Recognition of organizational or dynamic patterns recurring across different scales and phenomena, without asserting physical identity between them. The terminology and its distinction from other forms of correspondence remain under review.

Disorganization. Loss of the organization through which the continuity of a particular arrangement could be recognized. Its constituent arrangements may continue to exist and participate in other relations. A provisional synthesis of passages on reorganization and discontinuity.

Determination and change. In the latest working formulation, response is determined by the conditions existing at that instant, which are continuously updated. An event changes the arrangement and the conditions of future responses: determination remains, but its determinants change. Probabilities in human descriptions do not, by themselves, mean that the theory adopts fundamental randomness.

Differentiation. A distinction allowing relations to be analyzed, differences to be perceived, and information to be produced. It belongs to the explanatory perspective; it does not turn a unified reality into independent realities.

Relational distance. Mediation associated with the complexification of Derived Reality in relation to Original Reality. It does not designate spatial distance, inferiority, error, or lower value. A later formulation also describes it as logical or representational distance.

Diversification. A term associated with arrangements’ possibilities for transformation and the variability of their limits, relative to structure, state, context, scale, and time. Provisional entry: the documents develop this condition but do not yet establish a complete standalone definition of diversification.

Emergence. The appearance of behaviors specific to a new organizational scale, dependent on cooperation among constituent arrangements and not attributable to any one of them in isolation. It means neither emergence from nothing nor elimination of previous layers.

State. The effective configuration of an arrangement at a particular instant, combining its statistical configuration and present circumstances. The expression “statistical configuration + circumstances” indicates this combination; it requires neither numerical addition nor independence between the components.

Viability Range of the Arrangement. The range of conditions, relations, and pressures within which an arrangement can preserve its continuity, reorganizing when necessary without losing the minimum organization that maintains it as that arrangement. The range can vary with its structure, statistical configuration, state, and relations.

Flow. Movement and transformation considered in the relations of ORT-energy and arrangements. The historical formulation describes it as movement of energy between arrangements; later texts discuss continuous flow and reorganization. This synthesis remains under review to clarify the term’s scope.

Form. An aspect of an arrangement’s organization addressed by the explanatory sequence Unit–Flow–Opposition–Arrangement. It is a property in the explanatory map, inseparable from the reality also analyzed through function and meaning. The entry will be refined as this sequence is developed.

Function. An arrangement’s behavior considered in its relations and at a particular scale. The documents associate its explanation with the sequence Unit–Flow–Connection–Cooperation–Emergence. It does not imply conscious purpose. A provisional synthesis, without matching this sequence term by term to the explanation of form.

Interaction. A relation through which arrangements affect and are affected, directly or indirectly. One arrangement can change another that, in turn, changes a third, without direct interaction between the first and third and without assuming intention.

Human metaconsciousness. The human capacity to direct attention toward observing one’s own thought, emotions, sensations, automatic patterns, and responses. Focus can alternate between cognitive and bodily processes. It is not synonymous with ORT-consciousness.

Multiperspectivity. Broadening analysis through different perspectives, scales, and analytical frames. It allows investigation of relations relevant to other arrangements without claiming to literally occupy their structure or acquire their complete experience.

Opposition. A term in the explanation of form through Unit–Flow–Opposition–Arrangement. The documents relate it to antagonism and examples of opposing forces. Its precise meaning and relationship to elementary relations still need development; no automatic equivalence with a particular physical force is adopted here.

Pair. Two units considered in relation. In ORT’s path of abstraction, the pair makes it possible to distinguish the first arrangement, the first Derived Reality, and ORT-consciousness. It is an explanatory boundary, not an assertion of an already demonstrated physical chronology.

Pressure. Events and relations acting on an arrangement that can affect its continuity. Analysis considers quantity, intensity, and time, including duration, frequency, and the interval available for reorganization. It is not reduced to a static quantity or exclusively to pressure as a physical quantity.

Derived Reality. Reality according to the relations possible for a particular arrangement, given its structure and state. It is neither a separate second reality nor synonymous with illusion. A representation’s reality as an event in an arrangement does not guarantee its correspondence with an external phenomenon.

Human Derived Reality. Derived Reality considered at the human scale, conditioned by sensory, physiological, and cognitive limits, trajectory, state, language, and culture. It includes individual and shared representations; sharing does not turn them into absolute representations.

Original Reality. The theoretical limit of maximum abstraction, without privileging a particular perspective or introducing differentiations. In this page’s current formulation, it corresponds to the limit of zero differentiation and zero information. The documents also approach it through the unit of ORT-energy; this connection remains under development, without confusing theoretical representation with complete access to reality.

Resistance. The way an arrangement’s structure and state condition the absorption of pressures, change, and continuity. It emerges from the state and is not synonymous with rigidity: it may involve adaptation and reorganization. Both the incoming load and the time available to respond are considered.

Response. Contextual behavior emerging from an arrangement’s relations in its present state. It participates in new experiences and updates the conditions of future responses; it does not require conscious decision.

Meaning. What is produced or attributed in a relation according to an arrangement’s structure and state. The same phenomenon can acquire different meanings for different arrangements. It is a property of the explanatory map, not something transferred intact through communication.

Tension. A term used to analyze relations of support, difference, and transformation in arrangements. The documents present it both as structural tension and as a distribution considered at an instant. Its definition and the connection between these uses remain provisional; identity with a single physical quantity is not assumed.

ORT-consciousness. The capacity for provisional maintenance of an arrangement’s structural and functional organization, preserving differentiation and continuity in relations. It involves ORT-perceiving relevant differences, ORT-interpreting them, and responding. It replaces the historical expression “functional consciousness”; it implies neither sensations, reflection, nor human consciousness. The discontinuity of one arrangement does not necessarily eliminate the ORT-consciousness of constituent arrangements that continue to exist.

ORT-energy. The theoretical elementary foundation adopted by ORT for what exists. It corresponds neither exclusively to energy as a physical quantity nor to a particular form of manifestation. Differences are analyzed through relations, arrangements, scales, and configurations of this foundation.

ORT-experience. Relations and events participating in an arrangement’s trajectory that can change its response conditions. It is reduced neither to conscious experience nor to retrievable memory; its contribution to the arrangement’s constitution is addressed through statistical configuration.

ORT-interpretation. Relational processing of what has been ORT-perceived according to an arrangement’s structure and present state. It does not require human thought or cognition. Its distinction from perception is analytical and does not assume temporally isolated stages.

ORT-perception. The process through which differences become relevant according to an arrangement’s structure and state. It is not exclusively equivalent to human sensory perception and does not mean capturing everything that exists.

ORT-representation. In the author’s clarification concerning nonhuman arrangements, it relates to the response or the operational basis of response in internal relations and relations with the environment. It requires neither a sentence, a mental image, nor conscious classification. This entry remains under development, particularly regarding the distinction between representation, interpretation, and response.

ORT-life. The presence of movement, including internal movement, without being limited to biological life. In this theory-specific sense, a stone has ORT-life; the expression does not classify it as a living organism. The prefix should accompany the term to preserve this distinction even when the sentence is read in isolation.

Unit of ORT-energy. The operational elementary limit adopted by the theory in its path of abstraction. It does not necessarily designate an atom, quark, or known particle and is not a physical unit of measurement. Calling an atom a “unit” in examples may indicate only the chosen explanatory scale.