Parallelism is often required for performance. In these situations an excess of non-determinism harmful as it means the program can have several different behaviours or even results. Even in domains such high-performance computing where parallelism crucial performance, computed value should be deterministic. Unfortunately, programs also allows dynamic scheduling tasks, reacting to first task th...

Suppose all of the particles in the universe should happen to come to rest at the same time, in positions so arranged that all of the forces on every particle balance to zero at that time. What would happen next? Or rather, what does Newtonian mechanics say will happen next? 1 Preface 2 Inertia and Stasis 2.1 Stating the Law of Inertia more precisely 2.2 The stasis scenario 3 Indeterministic Ex...

1. Explain the difference between scientific and “soft” determinism. 2. What is the one miracle that would happen in a predeterministic universe? 3. Explain the difference between predestination and fatalism. How does the short characterization of the doctrine of fatalism in this chapter differ from the lexical definition of “fatalism”? 4. If our choices are not due to chance, reason, or causes...

Exponentiation makes the difference between the bit-size of this line and the number (≪ 2) of particles in the known Universe. The expulsion of exponential time algorithms from Computer Theory in the 60’s broke its umbilical cord from Mathematical Logic. It created a deep gap between deterministic computation and – formerly its unremarkable tools – randomness and non-determinism. Little did we ...