Computational Complexity for Physicists

These lecture notes are an informal introduction to the theory of computational complexity and its links to quantum computing and statistical mechanics.Comment: references updated, reprint available from http://itp.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/~mertens/papers/complexity.shtm

Problem-Solving Negotiation: Northern Ireland\u27s Experience with the Women\u27s Coalition Symposium

This paper is part of a Symposium that considered the relevance of domestic conflict resolution theories in broader cultural contexts. The Northern Ireland Women\u27s Coalition (Women\u27s Coalition) participated in the negotiations leading up to the 1998 Good Friday/Belfast Agreement. Members of the Woman\u27s Coalition responded to thirty years of sectarian violence with a negotiation process based on accommodation, inclusion, and relationship building, concepts that resonate with American-style problem-solving negotiation. Using the Women\u27s Coalition as a case study, this Article suggests that there are procedural aspects of problem-solving negotiation theory that may work across domains, specifically in multi-party, intractable conflict situations, where not all players share the same end game. Topics discussed include: (i) background of the conflict in Northern Ireland, the Troubles , (ii) problem-solving negotiation theory, (iii) strategic approaches of the Women\u27s Coalition during the multi-party negotiations leading to the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement, (iv) perspectives on comparative dispute resolution, and (v) relevance of inclusion, trust and relationship building

An Instrumentalist Account of How to Weigh Epistemic and Practical Reasons for Belief

When one has both epistemic and practical reasons for or against some belief, how do these reasons combine into an all-things-considered reason for or against that belief? The question might seem to presuppose the existence of practical reasons for belief. But we can rid the question of this presupposition. Once we do, a highly general ‘Combinatorial Problem’ emerges. The problem has been thought to be intractable due to certain differences in the combinatorial properties of epistemic and practical reasons. Here we bring good news: if we accept an independently motivated version of epistemic instrumentalism—the view that epistemic reasons are a species of instrumental reasons—we can reduce The Combinatorial Problem to the relatively benign problem of how to weigh different instrumental reasons against each other. As an added benefit, the instrumentalist account can explain the apparent intractability of The Combinatorial Problem in terms of a common tendency to think and talk about epistemic reasons in an elliptical manner

The Logic of Experimental Tests, Particularly of Everettian Quantum Theory

Claims that the standard methodology of scientific testing is inapplicable to Everettian quantum theory, and hence that the theory is untestable, are due to misconceptions about probability and about the logic of experimental testing. Refuting those claims by correcting those misconceptions leads to various simplifications, notably the elimination of everything probabilistic from fundamental physics (stochastic processes) and from the methodology of testing ('Bayesian' credences)