  In many instances in first order logic or computable algebra, classical
theorems show that many problems are undecidable for general structures, but
become decidable if some rigidity is imposed on the structure. For example, the
set of theorems in many finitely axiomatisable theories is nonrecursive, but
the set of theorems for any finitely axiomatisable complete theory is
recursive. Finitely presented groups might have an nonrecursive word problem,
but finitely presented simple groups have a recursive word problem. In this
article we introduce a topological framework based on closure spaces to show
that many of these proofs can be obtained in a similar setting. We will show in
particular that these statements can be generalized to cover arbitrary
structures, with no finite or recursive presentation/axiomatization. This
generalizes in particular work by Kuznetsov and others. Examples from first
order logic and symbolic dynamics will be discussed at length.
