The method of ontogenetic thinking can be applied to any real system.
Real systems are systems that exist, have existed, or will exist as empirically observable systems in space and time. This excludes, for example, mathematical objects such as numbers or purely fictional imaginary worlds from literature. On the one hand, the method can be applied analytically by observing the properties of an existing system and then asking how the system is structured and how it could have come into being. On the other hand, the method can also be applied constructively, i.e. by considering how and in what way a system would have to be constructed in order to achieve certain desired properties. Since the method of ontogenetic thinking aims at a comprehensive understanding of the system, it can be used to explain system behavior in the past as well as to predict it for the future. However, the behavior of systems can only be explained or predicted with varying degrees of accuracy - again, a sound understanding of the system provides an estimate of how reliable the system's behavior is or how many surprises are to be expected.
However, the method of ontogenetic thinking is not a magic tool, but only a heuristic device. The method of thinking provides the questions, not the answers. The answers can only be found with sound knowledge and a pinch of imagination. You should pay attention to the coherence and consistency of the answers to the three key questions. The more internal connections the answers show and the fewer ad hoc assumptions you have to make, the more likely you are to have found a good and reliable explanation for the system under consideration.
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