We ask when, for a pair of structures $\mathcal {A}_1,\mathcal {A}_2$ , there is a uniform effective procedure that, given copies of the two structures, unlabeled, always produces a copy of $\mathcal {A}_1$ . We give some conditions guaranteeing that there is such a procedure. The conditions might suggest that for the pair of orderings $\mathcal {A}_1$ of type $\omega _1^{CK}$ and $\mathcal {A}_2$ of Harrison type, there should not be any such procedure, but, in fact, there is one. We construct an example for which there is no such procedure. The construction involves forcing. On the way to constructing our example, we prove a general result on modifying Cohen generics.

Ackermann’s function can be expressed using an iterative algorithm, which essentially takes the form of a term rewriting system. Although the termination of this algorithm is far from obvious, its equivalence to the traditional recursive formulation—and therefore its totality—has a simple proof in Isabelle/HOL. This is a small example of formalising mathematics using a proof assistant, with a focus on the treatment of difficult recursions.

We describe punctual categoricity in several natural classes, including binary relational structures and mono-unary functional structures. We prove that every punctually categorical structure in a finite unary language is ${\text {PA}}(0')$-categorical, and we show that this upper bound is tight. We also construct an example of a punctually categorical structure whose degree of categoricity is $0''$. We also prove that, with a bit of work, the latter result can be pushed beyond $\Delta ^1_1$, thus showing that punctually categorical structures can possess arbitrarily complex automorphism orbits.

As a consequence, it follows that binary relational structures and unary structures are not universal with respect to primitive recursive interpretations; equivalently, in these classes every rich enough interpretation technique must necessarily involve unbounded existential quantification or infinite disjunction. In contrast, it is well-known that both classes are universal for Turing computability.

Using methods from computable analysis, we establish a new connection between two seemingly distant areas of logic: computable structure theory and invariant descriptive set theory. We extend several fundamental results of computable structure theory to the more general setting of topological group actions. As we will see, the usual action of ${S_\infty }$ on the space of structures in a given language is effective in a certain algorithmic sense that we need, and ${S_\infty }$ itself carries a natural computability structure (to be defined). Among other results, we give a sufficient condition for an orbit under effective ${\cal G}$-action of a computable Polish ${\cal G}$ to split into infinitely many disjoint effective orbits. Our results are not only more general than the respective results in computable structure theory, but they also tend to have proofs different from (and sometimes simpler than) the previously known proofs of the respective prototype results.

A computability structure on a metric space is a set of sequences which satisfy certain conditions. Of a particular interest are those computability structures which contain a dense sequence, so called separable computability structures. In this paper we observe maximal computability structures which are more general than separable computability structures and we examine their properties. In particular, we examine maximal computability structures on subspaces of Euclidean space, we give their characterization and we investigate conditions under which a maximal computability structure on such a space is unique. We also give a characterization of separable computability structures on a segment.

We define and study quasidialectical systems, which are an extension of Magari’s dialectical systems, designed to make Magari’s formalization of trial and error mathematics more adherent to the real mathematical practice of revision: our proposed extension follows, and in several regards makes more precise, varieties of empiricist positions à la Lakatos. We prove several properties of quasidialectical systems and of the sets that they represent, called quasidialectical sets. In particular, we prove that the quasidialectical sets are ${\rm{\Delta }}_2^0$ sets in the arithmetical hierarchy. We distinguish between “loopless” quasidialectal systems, and quasidialectical systems “with loops”. The latter ones represent exactly those coinfinite c.e. sets, that are not simple. In a subsequent paper we will show that whereas the dialectical sets are ω-c.e., the quasidialectical sets spread out throughout all classes of the Ershov hierarchy of the ${\rm{\Delta }}_2^0$ sets.