Re: [Epigram] Definitional equality in observational type theory

2007-02-01 Thread Thorsten Altenkirch

Hi Bas,


thank you - indeed this is a very interesting observation. This was
the proof I had in mind when I first claimed that the axiom of choice
is provable in OTT. However, I was deluded in believing that OTT/
predicative topoi exactly characterize the theory of the setoid
model. As you clearly point out this is not the case. To me this is
an incompleteness of the formal system (OTT/predicative topoi) wrt
the intended interpretation. This should be fixable, leading to OTT+X
or predicative topoi + X which should be complete wrt the setoid
model. More categorically we could say that X characterizes the
predicative topoi obtained by an exact completion of an LCCC - I  
think.


First of all, I am not sure whether a "fix" is needed. My recent  
experience in

constructive mathematics is that it is actually quite pleasant to work
without countable choice. Initial experience shows that it may lead  
to better
algorithms implicit in the proofs. (Most of this is in my work with  
Thierry
Coquand.) As you know, choice breaks abstract datatypes. See for  
instance the
encoding of ADT as existential types by Mitchell and Plotkin. This  
is not
possible in dependent type theory precisely because we have choice  
(this was

pointed out to me by Jesper Carlstrom some time ago). I understand one
motivation for your work on OTT as an attempt to bring back (some?)  
ADTs in

type theory. It would be a pity to throw them out again without a good
reason.


I'd like to understand this better - in the moment I am unconvinced.   
Instead of "choice", I'd like


f : Pi a:A.(B a)/(~ a)
-
lift f: (Pi a:A.B a)/~'

for "discrete" types A, which means that I work in the internal  
language of the setoid model. Quotient types, even with lift, seem to  
be a good way to capture ADTs.


Also if you want to reject lift, it would be good to have a model  
construction (maybe like the setoid model) which refutes it. Other  
things which you want may become true in this model.




Having said that here are some quick remarks on your proposal below.
Having choice for N->N as somewhat uncommon. It is not present in  
Bishop's
constructive mathematics, i.e. more or less the setoid model of ML  
type

theory. However, it is present in Brouwerian intuitionism and in some
realizability models. Brouwer does not have choice for (N->N)->N.

Martin Hofmann has some discussion on choice and extensionality in  
his thesis,

but uses a syntactic criterion somewhat like the one that you outline.


I alreay realized that I should reread Martin's thesis.



One semantic candidate for X could be `all types have a projective  
cover'.

This is what is used in realizability theory and what Erik Palmgren
translated to type theory. A type P is projective if for all f:A->B  
and every

function g:P->B there is a function h:P->A with f o h = g. Projective
types "have choice". The idea is that the projective types are  
Bishop's

pre-sets or the types in the setoid construction.


I'll think about this.

Cheers,
Thorsten

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Re: [Epigram] Definitional equality in observational type theory

2007-02-01 Thread Thorsten Altenkirch

Hi Conor,


I'm not sure I understand what's going on here.


This happens if you don't type check your definitions. I got carried  
away with my non-dependent simplification of the story.

Thank you for actually reading it.


Indeed, in the setoid model we can construct a function

f : A -> [B]
--
lift f : [A -> B]
if the setoid A is "trivial", i.e. has the identity as its  
equivalence relation.


I can do it if A is decided. If you give me a : A, then I pick

 lift f = iI const (f a) Ii


Indeed, however your trick won't work for the dependent version:

f : Pi a:A.[B a]
-
lift f: [Pi a:A.B a]


f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'


Again, if you give me some a : A, I say

 lift f = const (f a)  -- const respects the equivalence because   
const b a ~' const b' a if b ~ b'


Dito. We need

f : Pi a:A.(B a)/(~ a)
-
lift f: (Pi a:A.B a)/~'

where ~' is defined as before: f ~' g = Pi a:A.f a ~ g a but for  
f,g : Pi a:A.B a and ~ is actually a family of equivalence relations  
~' : Pi a:A.(B a) -> (B a) -> Prop.




We define the type of non-empty subsets of Bool as

NE = Sigma Q : Bool-> Prop.Sigma x:Bool.Q x


Note that NE is inhabited, eg by

 moo = (const 1; true; ()).


We define the equivalence relation of extensional equality of subsets

~ : NE -> NE -> Prop

(Q,_) ~ (R,_) = forall b:Bool.Q b <-> R b

Now we derive:

h : NE/~ -> [ NE ]


We define

h0 : Pi (P,_):NE . [ Sigma b:2.P b ]
h0 (P,p) = return p

and observe that this trivially preserves ~ and hence we obtain

h : Pi (P,_):NE/~ . [ Sigma b:2.P b ]


Now, if we were able to lift h we get

lift h : [ NE/~ -> NE]


 return (const moo) : [ NE/~ -> NE]


lift h : [ Pi (P,_):NE/~ . Sigma b:2.P b ]

and your version ceases to work.


Obviously, NE/~ isn't a setoid with a trivial equality!

The Diaconescu argument shows that we can prove for any P:Prop

H : NE/~ -> NE
--
Dia H : P \/ not P = [P + not P]




Corrected:

H : Pi (P,_):NE/~ . Sigma b:2.P b

Dia H : P \/ not P = [P + not P]



 Dia (const moo) : P \/ not P


see below for a Epigram 2+n style proof of Dia.


Under the circumstances, I really hope you've cocked this up.


I have.




We can also see what goes wrong in general: The principle

f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'

fails because given the setoid A = (A0,~A) the premise gives us an  
underlying function f0:A0 -> B (for simplicity we assume that B is  
trivial) s.t. a ~A b implies f0 a ~B f0 b, where to use the same  
function to construct an element of  A -> B we need to show that   
a ~A b implies f0 a = f0 b, and there is no reason to believe this  
- unless ~A is the equality.


I just about swallow that. But if A0 is decided, you need to use  
the spec part (which you're eliding for simplicity) to force me to  
use f0 in the way you're suggesting.


You are right. The reasoning only works for the dependent version.




P.S.
For completeness: Dia itself can be constructed as in the COQ  
script: we use

T,F : Bool -> Prop

T b = (b=true) \/ P
F b = (b=false) \/ P

by applying H to the equivalence classe , and projecting out  
the components we get


t,f : Bool
t = fst (H )
f = fst (H )
snd (H ) : t=true \/ P
snd (H ) : f=false \/ P


Are you sure? I thought

 H had return type NE, giving
 (P; a; p) = fst (H ), (Q, b, q) := fst(H ) : Bool -> Prop
 where a,b : Bool, p : P a, q : Q b

but no connection necessary between T and P, F and Q.


This should now work with the correct type of H.

Cheers,
Thorsten

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Re: [Epigram] Definitional equality in observational type theory

2007-02-01 Thread Conor McBride

Hi Thorsten

I'm not sure I understand what's going on here.

Thorsten Altenkirch wrote:

Indeed, in the setoid model we can construct a function

f : A -> [B]
--
lift f : [A -> B]

if the setoid A is "trivial", i.e. has the identity as its equivalence 
relation.


I can do it if A is decided. If you give me a : A, then I pick

 lift f = iI const (f a) Ii

or, in less idiomatic longhand

 lift f = do
   c <- return const
   b <- f a
   return (c b)

If you give me A -> 0, it's easy.


f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'


Again, if you give me some a : A, I say

 lift f = const (f a)  -- const respects the equivalence because  const 
b a ~' const b' a if b ~ b'


But hang on - what stops us from doing a Diaconescu? Excluded middle 
doesn't hold in the setoid model, even though we only get P \/ not P 
where A \/ B = [A + B].  But this would still require that we have P + 
not P in the underlying set. So what goes wrong?


We define the type of non-empty subsets of Bool as

NE = Sigma Q : Bool-> Prop.Sigma x:Bool.Q x


Note that NE is inhabited, eg by

 moo = (const 1; true; ()).


We define the equivalence relation of extensional equality of subsets

~ : NE -> NE -> Prop

(Q,_) ~ (R,_) = forall b:Bool.Q b <-> R b

Now we derive:

h : NE/~ -> [ NE ]

which is just the indentity on the underlying elements. The point is 
that obviously ~ implies the trivial equality of [..].


Now, if we were able to lift h we get

lift h : [ NE/~ -> NE]


 return (const moo) : [ NE/~ -> NE]


Obviously, NE/~ isn't a setoid with a trivial equality!

The Diaconescu argument shows that we can prove for any P:Prop

H : NE/~ -> NE
--
Dia H : P \/ not P = [P + not P]


 Dia (const moo) : P \/ not P


see below for a Epigram 2+n style proof of Dia.


Under the circumstances, I really hope you've cocked this up.


We can also see what goes wrong in general: The principle

f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'

fails because given the setoid A = (A0,~A) the premise gives us an 
underlying function f0:A0 -> B (for simplicity we assume that B is 
trivial) s.t. a ~A b implies f0 a ~B f0 b, where to use the same 
function to construct an element of  A -> B we need to show that  a ~A 
b implies f0 a = f0 b, and there is no reason to believe this - unless 
~A is the equality.


I just about swallow that. But if A0 is decided, you need to use the 
spec part (which you're eliding for simplicity) to force me to use f0 in 
the way you're suggesting.



P.S.
For completeness: Dia itself can be constructed as in the COQ script: 
we use

T,F : Bool -> Prop


T b = (b=true) \/ P
F b = (b=false) \/ P

by applying H to the equivalence classe , and projecting out the 
components we get


t,f : Bool
t = fst (H )
f = fst (H )
snd (H ) : t=true \/ P
snd (H ) : f=false \/ P


Are you sure? I thought

 H had return type NE, giving
 (P; a; p) = fst (H ), (Q, b, q) := fst(H ) : Bool -> Prop
 where a,b : Bool, p : P a, q : Q b

but no connection necessary between T and P, F and Q.

Now, I know that my pathological functions are not the functions you're 
thinking of, but it does rather show that the real action, whatever it 
is, lies in the "spec" parts which you're throwing away.


More later

Conor

PS I blogged a bit about implementing OTT...



Re: [Epigram] Definitional equality in observational type theory

2007-02-01 Thread Bas Spitters
Hi Thorsten,

On Thursday 01 February 2007 08:55:30 Thorsten Altenkirch wrote:
> thank you - indeed this is a very interesting observation. This was
> the proof I had in mind when I first claimed that the axiom of choice
> is provable in OTT. However, I was deluded in believing that OTT/
> predicative topoi exactly characterize the theory of the setoid
> model. As you clearly point out this is not the case. To me this is
> an incompleteness of the formal system (OTT/predicative topoi) wrt
> the intended interpretation. This should be fixable, leading to OTT+X
> or predicative topoi + X which should be complete wrt the setoid
> model. More categorically we could say that X characterizes the
> predicative topoi obtained by an exact completion of an LCCC - I think.

First of all, I am not sure whether a "fix" is needed. My recent experience in 
constructive mathematics is that it is actually quite pleasant to work 
without countable choice. Initial experience shows that it may lead to better 
algorithms implicit in the proofs. (Most of this is in my work with Thierry 
Coquand.) As you know, choice breaks abstract datatypes. See for instance the 
encoding of ADT as existential types by Mitchell and Plotkin. This is not 
possible in dependent type theory precisely because we have choice (this was 
pointed out to me by Jesper Carlstrom some time ago). I understand one 
motivation for your work on OTT as an attempt to bring back (some?) ADTs in 
type theory. It would be a pity to throw them out again without a good 
reason.

Having said that here are some quick remarks on your proposal below. 
Having choice for N->N as somewhat uncommon. It is not present in Bishop's 
constructive mathematics, i.e. more or less the setoid model of ML type 
theory. However, it is present in Brouwerian intuitionism and in some 
realizability models. Brouwer does not have choice for (N->N)->N.

Martin Hofmann has some discussion on choice and extensionality in his thesis, 
but uses a syntactic criterion somewhat like the one that you outline.

One semantic candidate for X could be `all types have a projective cover'. 
This is what is used in realizability theory and what Erik Palmgren 
translated to type theory. A type P is projective if for all f:A->B and every 
function g:P->B there is a function h:P->A with f o h = g. Projective 
types "have choice". The idea is that the projective types are Bishop's 
pre-sets or the types in the setoid construction.

Best,

Bas

---
Research Group Foundations/ Institute for Computing and Information Sciences
Radboud University Nijmegen www.cs.ru.nl/~spitters/


Re: [Epigram] Definitional equality in observational type theory

2007-02-01 Thread Thorsten Altenkirch

Hi Bas,

thank you - indeed this is a very interesting observation. This was  
the proof I had in mind when I first claimed that the axiom of choice  
is provable in OTT. However, I was deluded in believing that OTT/ 
predicative topoi exactly characterize the theory of the setoid  
model. As you clearly point out this is not the case. To me this is  
an incompleteness of the formal system (OTT/predicative topoi) wrt  
the intended interpretation. This should be fixable, leading to OTT+X  
or predicative topoi + X which should be complete wrt the setoid  
model. More categorically we could say that X characterizes the  
predicative topoi obtained by an exact completion of an LCCC - I think.


Indeed, in the setoid model we can construct a function

f : A -> [B]
--
lift f : [A -> B]

if the setoid A is "trivial", i.e. has the identity as its  
equivalence relation. The construction is exactly the one you point  
out & it actually corresponds to my previous informal explanation why  
this is "not unreasonable":


Note that this is not completely unreasonable: we observe the  
hidden choice made by f, but we compensate by this by hiding our  
knowledge.


Which setoids have a trivial equality? Certainly all first order  
types. However, if we start with an extensional theory (which can be  
justified with the setoid model) than also higher types N -> N have a  
trivial equality (indeed the extensional equality here is the  
"finest" equality). Hence we certainly get considerable more than  
countable choice.


Actually, instead of using only [..] we can formulate a more general  
operator for quotient types, given an equivalence relation ~ : B -> B  
-> Prop, we define ~' : (A -> B) -> (A->B)->Prop as f ~' g = forall  
a:A.f a ~ g a. We obtain the following generalisation:


f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'

But hang on - what stops us from doing a Diaconescu? Excluded middle  
doesn't hold in the setoid model, even though we only get P \/ not P  
where A \/ B = [A + B].  But this would still require that we have P  
+ not P in the underlying set. So what goes wrong?


We define the type of non-empty subsets of Bool as

NE = Sigma Q : Bool-> Prop.Sigma x:Bool.Q x

We define the equivalence relation of extensional equality of subsets

~ : NE -> NE -> Prop

(Q,_) ~ (R,_) = forall b:Bool.Q b <-> R b

Now we derive:

h : NE/~ -> [ NE ]

which is just the indentity on the underlying elements. The point is  
that obviously ~ implies the trivial equality of [..].


Now, if we were able to lift h we get

lift h : [ NE/~ -> NE]

Obviously, NE/~ isn't a setoid with a trivial equality!

The Diaconescu argument shows that we can prove for any P:Prop

H : NE/~ -> NE
--
Dia H : P \/ not P = [P + not P]

and combining the two using bind we get

(lift h) >>= Dia : P \/ not P

see below for a Epigram 2+n style proof of Dia.

We can also see what goes wrong in general: The principle

f : A -> B/~
-
lift f : (A -> B)/~'

fails because given the setoid A = (A0,~A) the premise gives us an  
underlying function f0:A0 -> B (for simplicity we assume that B is  
trivial) s.t. a ~A b implies f0 a ~B f0 b, where to use the same  
function to construct an element of  A -> B we need to show that  a  
~A b implies f0 a = f0 b, and there is no reason to believe this -  
unless ~A is the equality.


The main question is how to characterize abstractly the types A for  
which lift is valid. Syntactically we could say "All types not  
containing quotients" but this is not very nice. I'd like a semantic  
condition for the type.


Cheers,
Thorsten

P.S.
For completeness: Dia itself can be constructed as in the COQ script:  
we use


T,F : Bool -> Prop

T b = (b=true) \/ P
F b = (b=false) \/ P

by applying H to the equivalence classe , and projecting out  
the components we get


t,f : Bool
t = fst (H )
f = fst (H )
snd (H ) : t=true \/ P
snd (H ) : f=false \/ P

By analyzing the cases of the propositional components we get two  
cases in which we can prove P (hence we are done with P \/ not P) and  
one where we have


t=true
f=false

In this case we can prove not P: we assume p:P and using this we can  
prove T b, F b for any b and hence T b <-> F  and therefore  
= but then t=f and true=false and we have derived a contradiction.


On 1 Feb 2007, at 03:10, Bas Spitters wrote:


Hi Thorsten and others,

On Tuesday 30 January 2007 21:22:53 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I do indeed think that Observational Type Theory with quotient  
types should
be the language of a Predicative Topos. I don't see in the moment  
that the
setoid model would introduce anything which isn't provable in the  
Type
Theory and at least in the moment I don't see how to prove the  
countable

axiom of choice