26 February 2025, 01:43 (GMT)

Towards the end of my academic career, I became really interested in mereotopology.

This is a relatively obscure field at the interface of logic, ontology, mathematics and computer science.

The name comes from the Greek meros (parts) and topos (place). In essence, systems are defined in terms of which things are parts of other things and how things are connected.

Usually, either parthood or connection is taken as primitive, and is then used to define the other.

I found the topic fascinating as a highly general way of thinking; however, as a discipline, it is forbiddingly dry and technical. It would be nice to have some efforts at popularisation, like we have with category theory.

I worked for a long time on a mereotopology paper for a top philosophy journal. In it, I attempted to bridge some ideas in mereotopology, food science and programming. It was ultimately rejected during review. One of the reviewers compared my efforts to that of a famous mathematician before launching devastating critiques at my logical formalisms!

It was quite an experience.