TITLE: Are problems in complexity theory dependent on set theory?
QUESTION [8 upvotes]: I was pondering the fact that maybe the classical hard complexity-theoretic questions are undecidable, not because they are so themselves, but because some set-theoretic foundations makes the complexity-theoretic foundations shaky.
My thoughts was that perhaps something like the Continuum hypothesis makes P vs NP undecidable. 
So my question is, is there a "finitary" or otherwise obviously sane environment for complexity theory that would discount this theory immediately?
I'm aware of simpler structures where P vs NP has been decided, but I don't know how that would fit in.
I apologize in advance if this doesn't make sense.

REPLY [6 votes]: The statement that P=NP can be expressed in first-order arithmetic, and that part of mathematics is unaffected by the known methods of proving set-theoretic independence results (forcing, inner models).