Encoding universal types in terms of existential types?












6














In System F, the type exists a. P can be encoded as forall b. (forall a. P -> b) -> b in the sense that any System F term using an existential can be expressed in terms of this encoding respecting the typing and reduction rules.



In "Types and Programming Languages", the following exercise appears:




Can we encode universal types in terms of existential types?




My intuition says that this isn't possible because in some way the "existential packaging" mechanism simply isn't as powerful as the "type abstraction" mechanism. How do I formally show this?



I am not even sure what I need to prove to formally show this result.










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  • You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
    – Juan Pablo Santos
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:34












  • @JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
    – Agnishom Chattopadhyay
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:41
















6














In System F, the type exists a. P can be encoded as forall b. (forall a. P -> b) -> b in the sense that any System F term using an existential can be expressed in terms of this encoding respecting the typing and reduction rules.



In "Types and Programming Languages", the following exercise appears:




Can we encode universal types in terms of existential types?




My intuition says that this isn't possible because in some way the "existential packaging" mechanism simply isn't as powerful as the "type abstraction" mechanism. How do I formally show this?



I am not even sure what I need to prove to formally show this result.










share|improve this question
























  • You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
    – Juan Pablo Santos
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:34












  • @JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
    – Agnishom Chattopadhyay
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:41














6












6








6


2





In System F, the type exists a. P can be encoded as forall b. (forall a. P -> b) -> b in the sense that any System F term using an existential can be expressed in terms of this encoding respecting the typing and reduction rules.



In "Types and Programming Languages", the following exercise appears:




Can we encode universal types in terms of existential types?




My intuition says that this isn't possible because in some way the "existential packaging" mechanism simply isn't as powerful as the "type abstraction" mechanism. How do I formally show this?



I am not even sure what I need to prove to formally show this result.










share|improve this question















In System F, the type exists a. P can be encoded as forall b. (forall a. P -> b) -> b in the sense that any System F term using an existential can be expressed in terms of this encoding respecting the typing and reduction rules.



In "Types and Programming Languages", the following exercise appears:




Can we encode universal types in terms of existential types?




My intuition says that this isn't possible because in some way the "existential packaging" mechanism simply isn't as powerful as the "type abstraction" mechanism. How do I formally show this?



I am not even sure what I need to prove to formally show this result.







lambda-calculus existential-type type-theory system-f






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share|improve this question













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edited Nov 19 '18 at 16:40

























asked Nov 19 '18 at 13:33









Agnishom Chattopadhyay

824920




824920












  • You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
    – Juan Pablo Santos
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:34












  • @JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
    – Agnishom Chattopadhyay
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:41


















  • You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
    – Juan Pablo Santos
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:34












  • @JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
    – Agnishom Chattopadhyay
    Nov 19 '18 at 16:41
















You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
– Juan Pablo Santos
Nov 19 '18 at 16:34






You might want to look into skolemization: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skolem_normal_form
– Juan Pablo Santos
Nov 19 '18 at 16:34














@JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
– Agnishom Chattopadhyay
Nov 19 '18 at 16:41




@JuanPabloSantos I fail to see the connection
– Agnishom Chattopadhyay
Nov 19 '18 at 16:41












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