Why Extension-Based Proofs Fail

Explore a detailed computer science seminar where Faith Ellen from the University of Toronto examines why extension-based proofs fail in distributed computing. Learn about valency arguments as elegant techniques for proving impossibility results and understand their limitations. The lecture specifically addresses why there is no extension-based proof for the impossibility of solving 2-set agreement among 3 processes that communicate using read and write operations, despite the fact that no wait-free algorithm exists for this problem. Discover additional impossibility results that cannot be proven using extension-based methods in this advanced Computer Science/Discrete Mathematics seminar hosted by the Institute for Advanced Study.