"This talk is an invitation to embark on a journey to solve one of the most naive yet insanely convoluted open question in #software architecture: the problem of unit systems and physical quantities. As surprising as it may seem, in 2023, there is still no software library available in any of the most common programming languages that covers the issue in its full complexity including its myriad of edge cases. In the context of a standardization effort within the #cpp programming language committee #WG21 on the topic of units this talk constitutes an attempt to reach out to the #appliedcategorytheory community in order to approach the subject from a new angle.
Throughout the presentation, a particular attention will be put on the underlying reasons behind the emerging complexity of the subject and why applied category theory may be key to disentangle this apparent complexity. This will be illustrated by concrete applications in computational #physics and metrology, including particularly pathological cases that will put into question the very notion of what a unit is. Exploring conceptual boundaries through edge cases will help putting constraints on the mathematical structures that may be used to abstract the problem. Beyond the mere scope of being able to standardize a unit systems software library, the challenge raised in this talk represents a gateway to deep questions about physics, its language, its structure, and how to translate it into #typetheory. It also constitutes a perfect playground for applied category theory, going from a naive and well-framed question to an interdisciplinary open problem at the intersection of physics, computer science, and mathematics with broad impacts for programming languages and international standards."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fc-mjFMSrw