Published Papers by Mate Szabo
How Computers Entered the Classroom, 1960–2000, 2023
Computers arrived in Hungary only by the end of the 1950s. During the
1960s, Hungary tried to imp... more Computers arrived in Hungary only by the end of the 1950s. During the
1960s, Hungary tried to implement several (mostly unsuccessful) reforms in the fields of education, economics, and even politics. However, the customary proliferation of bureaucracy was not fostering actual change. The strenuous efforts of the Hungarian “IT sector” in the field of education bore fruit only during the 1970s. Our paper focuses on the two decades of the 1960s and 1970s while providing a short summary of the 1950s as a background for these processes, and a short section about the spreading of personal computer culture and its use in education in the 1980s. We discuss computer education on multiple levels, from secondary schools to universities, including cybernetics and computer clubs, as well as vocational education. Discourse around the growing delay behind developed Western countries heightened as schools lagged behind in technological development more and more. Beyond the bureaucratic and ideological aspects, we also discuss the debates internal to the profession.
Proceedings of CiE 2021, 2021
The aim of this paper is to take a look at Péter's talk Rekursivität und Konstruktivität delivere... more The aim of this paper is to take a look at Péter's talk Rekursivität und Konstruktivität delivered at the Constructivity in Mathematics Col-loquium in 1957, where she challenged Church's Thesis from a constructive point of view. The discussion of her argument and motivations is then connected to her earlier work on recursion theory as well as her later work on theoretical computer science.
History and Philosophy of Logic, 2018
In his famous paper, An Unsolvable Problem of Elementary Number Theory , Alonzo Church (1936) ide... more In his famous paper, An Unsolvable Problem of Elementary Number Theory , Alonzo Church (1936) identified the intuitive notion of effective calculability with the mathematically precise notion of recursiveness. This proposal, known as Church's Thesis, has been widely accepted. Only a few papers have been written against it. One of these is László Kalmár's An Argument Against the Plausibility of Church's Thesis from 1959. The aim of this paper is to present Kalmár's argument and to fill in missing details based on his general philosophical thoughts on mathematics.
IEEE Xplore Digital Library, 2020
The aim of this paper is to describe Hungary's early involvement in the Come-con's Unified System... more The aim of this paper is to describe Hungary's early involvement in the Come-con's Unified System of Computers (Ryad) and its impact on the country's computerization. This case study details Hungary's complex situation at the time: its engagement with Western computer companies, its willingness to participate in Ryad, and the impact of its newly introduced economic reforms on these processes.
Leslie and Schmitt (eds) “Histories of Computing in Eastern Europe.” IFIP WG 9.7 Workshop Proceedings, Springer, 2019
The aim of this case study is to provide a detailed description of the first university-level pro... more The aim of this case study is to provide a detailed description of the first university-level programming and computer science training in Hungary, which started in 1957 at the University of Szeged. The program began due to the strenuous efforts of Professor László Kalmár, who is considered to be "the father of computer science in Hungary." The aim of this study is to add to the literature on Kalmár's work, focusing on his activities in the field of computer science education, and at the same time, to add a detailed study from the Eastern Block to the history of computer science education..
Proceedings of CiE 2019, 2019
Computer Science is a rather young discipline, and as usual with new disciplines, in its early st... more Computer Science is a rather young discipline, and as usual with new disciplines, in its early stage there were important discussions about its aim, scope and methodology. Throughout these debates, it was claimed at different times that computer science belongs to the natural sciences, mathematics, or engineering. Questions about the organization of the field were raised as well: is there a need for computer science departments, or for separate computer science majors at the university level? The history of these debates has been documented rather well in recent years. However, the literature focuses mostly on sources from the US and Western Europe. The aim of this paper is to include the stance of eminent Hungarian logician and computer scientist László Kalmár in the history of this discussion. Kalmár's view is reconstructed based on recently found, formerly unpublished archival materials from 1970-1971: a conference abstract and his correspondence about Hungarian computer science education. In this paper, I will also situate Kalmár's view among the positions of other prominent scholars in these debates.
Proceedings of the IEEE, Oct 2016
Some stories and history about the first electronic, vacuum tube computer built in Hungary.
![Research paper thumbnail of Why Post did [not] have Turing's Thesis (preprint, forthcoming)](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/40698402/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Abstract The conceptual confluence of Post's and Turing's analysis of combinatory processes, resp... more Abstract The conceptual confluence of Post's and Turing's analysis of combinatory processes, respectively of mechanical procedures, is the central topic in (Davis and Sieg 2015). Where Turing argued convincingly for the adequacy of his notion of machine computation in 1936, Post viewed his identical notion in the same year as being tied to a working hypothesis in need of “continual verification”. Post gave novel and informative arguments for his thesis or, as he put it, generalization. He insisted, however, that ultimately a psychological analysis "of mental processes involved in combinatory mathematical processes" has to be given. In this way, he hoped to obtain a natural law and thus the basis for the claim that the undecidability and incompleteness theorems constitute “a fundamental discovery in the limitations of the mathematizing power of Homo Sapiens”. Our detailed analysis of (the background for) his work on the issues leads to an unambiguous answer to the question Did Post have Turing’s Thesis?: He did [not].
Evolving Computability, Proceedings of Computing in Europe, Bucharest, 2015, Jun 2015
László Kalmár and Péter Rózsa ''proved that the existence of (...) undecidable problems follows f... more László Kalmár and Péter Rózsa ''proved that the existence of (...) undecidable problems follows from Gödel's Theorem on relatively undecidable problems'' (Péter, 1976, p. vii). Unfortunately, the only available document of their joint work is Kalmár's sketch of the proof in his (1949). In the following, I assemble a paper from Kalmár's manuscripts on this issue.
Forthcoming in: Arnold Beckmann, Victor Mitrana and Mariya Soskova (eds): Proceedings of Computability in Europe, 2015
Reviews by Mate Szabo
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2018
Exhibition review of the Warhol and the Amiga exhibition at the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.
IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 2018
Journal of Science and Technology of the Arts, 2018
Review of the "Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959-1989." exhibition at t... more Review of the "Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959-1989." exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.
for studying real-life problems since hybrid systems (those involving discrete and continuous req... more for studying real-life problems since hybrid systems (those involving discrete and continuous requirements) are everywhere.
Bibliographies by Mate Szabo
This bibliography collects sources in English about the history of logic in Eastern Europe.
This bibliography collects comics that involve computers, computer culture or computer pioneers. ... more This bibliography collects comics that involve computers, computer culture or computer pioneers. It includes titles for both adult and child readers.
Extended Abstracts by Mate Szabo
Programming and computer science in Hungary was first taught at the university level at the Unive... more Programming and computer science in Hungary was first taught at the university level at the University of Szeged in the fall semester of 1957. First it was offered as a track within the mathematics major, eventually becoming a separate major by the fall semester of 1963. The program was started by the eminent logician László Kalmár, whose interests turned towards computers, automata theory, and cybernetics around 1955.
Workshop by Mate Szabo
Workshop Abstract The aim of the Workshop is to throw light on the history of logic in Central an... more Workshop Abstract The aim of the Workshop is to throw light on the history of logic in Central and Eastern Europe through the reception of Hilbert's axiomatic method. It will be held in Brno at the
Treasure Hunt in the Kalmár Nachlass by Mate Szabo
Kalmár László 1971-es levele a Számítástechnikai Program megvalósításával kapcsolatban begépelte:... more Kalmár László 1971-es levele a Számítástechnikai Program megvalósításával kapcsolatban begépelte: Szabó Máté ⇤ Az alábbi levél a Szegedi Tudományegyetem Klebelsberg Könyvtárában található Kalmár hagyaték "Lev-12." mappájából származik. A mappában található iratok 1957 és 1974 közöttiek. Az összes 1957 és 1961 közötti levél megtalálható az alábbi hyperlinken: Kalmár hivatalos levelezése, [1957][1958][1959][1960][1961]. Amennyiben az olvasó szeretne hozzáférni a további levelekhez, keressen meg e-mailben.
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Published Papers by Mate Szabo
1960s, Hungary tried to implement several (mostly unsuccessful) reforms in the fields of education, economics, and even politics. However, the customary proliferation of bureaucracy was not fostering actual change. The strenuous efforts of the Hungarian “IT sector” in the field of education bore fruit only during the 1970s. Our paper focuses on the two decades of the 1960s and 1970s while providing a short summary of the 1950s as a background for these processes, and a short section about the spreading of personal computer culture and its use in education in the 1980s. We discuss computer education on multiple levels, from secondary schools to universities, including cybernetics and computer clubs, as well as vocational education. Discourse around the growing delay behind developed Western countries heightened as schools lagged behind in technological development more and more. Beyond the bureaucratic and ideological aspects, we also discuss the debates internal to the profession.
Forthcoming in: Arnold Beckmann, Victor Mitrana and Mariya Soskova (eds): Proceedings of Computability in Europe, 2015
Reviews by Mate Szabo
Bibliographies by Mate Szabo
Extended Abstracts by Mate Szabo
Workshop by Mate Szabo
Treasure Hunt in the Kalmár Nachlass by Mate Szabo
1960s, Hungary tried to implement several (mostly unsuccessful) reforms in the fields of education, economics, and even politics. However, the customary proliferation of bureaucracy was not fostering actual change. The strenuous efforts of the Hungarian “IT sector” in the field of education bore fruit only during the 1970s. Our paper focuses on the two decades of the 1960s and 1970s while providing a short summary of the 1950s as a background for these processes, and a short section about the spreading of personal computer culture and its use in education in the 1980s. We discuss computer education on multiple levels, from secondary schools to universities, including cybernetics and computer clubs, as well as vocational education. Discourse around the growing delay behind developed Western countries heightened as schools lagged behind in technological development more and more. Beyond the bureaucratic and ideological aspects, we also discuss the debates internal to the profession.
Forthcoming in: Arnold Beckmann, Victor Mitrana and Mariya Soskova (eds): Proceedings of Computability in Europe, 2015
Hungary was responsible for the smallest member of the series, the R10, a computer that did not have a corresponding machine in the IBM 360 series. It was based on the license of the 10010 and later Mitra 15 computers of the French Compagnie International pour l'Informatique (CII) that Hungary bought in 1968. The aim of my talk is to describe Hungary's first couple of years in the project. To achieve this, I briefly describe the state of computer manufacturing in Hungary prior to joining Ryad, give a quick overview of the economic and historical context, and explain the role of the institutions that took part in the project.