English

Internalizing Tools as Morphisms in Graded Transformers

Machine Learning 2025-11-25 v1 Category Theory

Abstract

We introduce a graded formulation of internal symbolic computation for transformers. The hidden space is endowed with a grading V=gGVgV=\bigoplus_{g\in G}V_g, and symbolic operations are realized as typed block maps (morphisms) ϕhg:VgVh\phi_{h\leftarrow g}:V_g\to V_h that are activated selectively by a differentiable routing policy. A self-supervised \emph{graded utility functional}, defined as the loss reduction induced by a candidate morphism, governs activation and yields sparse, interpretable behavior. We develop the algebraic and geometric foundations: an internal model category whose objects are homogeneous components and whose morphisms are admissible grade transitions; adjoint pairs encoding typed round trips; and information-geometric interpretations in terms of KL gain, mirror descent with Bregman divergences, and Fisher natural gradients. Methodologically, we specify a utility--aware routing mechanism and objective that remain fully end-to-end differentiable. Analytic case studies and lightweight sanity checks illustrate selective morphic activation on hybrid symbolic-linguistic tasks. The framework unifies symbolic computation, geometry, and self--supervised learning within the \emph{graded transformer} formalism \cite{sh-89,sh-95}, while subsuming prior external-tool paradigms (e.g., Toolformer \cite{toolformer2023}) as a special case via functorial internalization.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2511.17840,
  title  = {Internalizing Tools as Morphisms in Graded Transformers},
  author = {Tony Shaska},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.17840},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T07:49:51.463Z