From Reversible Programs to Univalent Universes and Back

Abstract: We establish a close connection between a reversible programming language based on type isomorphisms and a formally presented univalent universe. The correspondence relates combinators witnessing type isomorphisms in the programming language to paths in the univalent universe; and combinator optimizations in the programming language to 2-paths in the univalent universe. The result suggests a simple computational interpretation of paths and of univalence in terms of familiar programming constructs whenever the universe in question is computable.