The Illusion of Progress in General Topology — And the Case for Merit-Based Science in 2026

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The current research in general topology is mostly stuck in dire details, without a system and radical innovation, while ignored research of Victor Porton (ordered semigroup actions) provides a revolutionary change of the entire field.

General Topology Today: Activity Without Direction

Modern general topology produces a constant flow of papers, examples, and small theorems. On the surface, this looks like progress. But behind the publication counts and citation metrics lies a structural issue:

Most results are disconnected, non-systematic, and rarely integrate into a broader mathematical architecture.

This is not a failure of the discipline itself — topology is foundational.
It is a failure of the incentive system that shapes how research is done.

Academia Rewards the Wrong Things

  • Quantity over coherence
  • Incremental work over foundational breakthroughs
  • Short publication cycles over long-term unifying theory
  • Departmental hierarchy over individual merit

The result: a large volume of technical results but little effort invested in organizing the field into a unified, powerful structure.

General Topology

An Alternative Approach: Unifying Topology Through Relational Algebra

Researcher Viktor Porton has proposed a radically different direction.
In his mathematical work, he fully reduced general topology (including topological spaces, uniform spaces, proximity spaces, directed graphs, Cauchy spaces, metric spaces, locales and frames, etc.) to a specific relational algebraic framework and even to universal algebra — creating:

  • structural links between isolated theorems,
  • connections to the rest of mathematics,
  • a general architecture instead of ad hoc results.

This type of unification is exactly what mathematics needs — yet it is rarely supported inside the traditional university environment, where systemic innovation is often discouraged simply because it does not fit the standard publication model.


The Problem: Institutions Are Funded, Not Discoveries

Porton has publicly described obstacles in his academic path, including the fact that he does not hold a formal professorship due to earlier institutional barriers and conflicts.

Whether one interprets these experiences individually or as symptoms of a broader trend, they highlight a structural truth:

Traditional academia does not support independent researchers who pursue system-level breakthroughs outside established hierarchies.

Funding flows to:

  • departments,
  • administrators,
  • committees,
  • and institutional prestige…

not to the individuals who make discoveries.


AIIM: A New Funding Architecture for Global Science

The AI Internet Meritocracy (AIIM) offers a very different vision for scientific progress.
https://science-dao.org/meritocracy/

Its central principle is simple but transformative:

Fund the discovery, not the institution.

Under AIIM:

  • Every scientific result is evaluated on its own merit.
  • Money flows directly to the researcher who made the breakthrough.
  • No hierarchy, no department chairs, no gatekeepers.
  • Researchers gain full freedom to choose partners, collaborators, and directions.
  • High-impact discoveries receive high-impact rewards.
  • Fundamental, unifying work becomes economically viable.

This is the environment in which foundational ideas — such as reducing topology to relational algebra — can flourish.


Why Science Needs Meritocracy

Scientific creativity requires:

  • freedom instead of bureaucracy
  • structural innovation instead of metric-driven output
  • global collaboration instead of departmental silos
  • courage to pursue deep, unifying ideas
  • a fair system that rewards real breakthroughs

The future of research will not be built on the quantity of publications.
It will be built on coherent, transformative contributions — the kind academia currently struggles to support.

AIIM provides a path toward a scientific ecosystem where every researcher, regardless of affiliation, can be recognized and funded for genuine progress.


Call to Action

If you believe that science should reward real discoveries — not administrative structures — explore how AIIM works and join the effort to build a merit-based global research economy:

👉 Learn more: https://science-dao.org/meritocracy/

👉 Support the development of independent, foundational research: https://science-dao.org/donation/

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