. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "We study the complexity of two problems of distributed computation and decision-making. We show that deciding whether two distant agents can arrive at compatible decisions without any communication one agent has three or more alternatives. We also show that minimizing the amount of communication necessary for the distributed computation of a function, when two distant computers receive each a part of the input, is NP-complete. This proves a conjecture due to A. Yao. (Author)."@en . . . "On the Complexity of Designing Distributed Protocols"@en . "Decision making." . . "Distributed data processing." . . "Computer communications." . . "Information theory." . . . . "Psychology." . . "Computations." . . "Theoretical Mathematics." . . "Boolean algebra." . . "MASSACHUSETTS INST OF TECH CAMBRIDGE LAB FOR INFORMATION AND DECISION SYSTEMS." . . "Cybernetics." . . "Information transfer." . . "Polynomials." . . "Statistics and Probability." . . "Distribution functions." . . "Mathematical models." . . "Reprints." . . "Computer Systems." . .