Quantum game theory isn’t a revolution in cooperation- its old wine in new bottles

(Andrew W., PoliSci@Madison, Our place in the universe: Alexander Wendt and

quantum mechanics International Theory (2022), 14 (1), 130–145 doi:10.1017/S1752971921000063)

Finally, Wendt turns to quantum game theory. Game theory is the study of strategic interaction, and as such involves the interaction of at least two people. Here, Wendt further develops the notion of entanglement and claims that wave functions, kept from collapsing in our minds, are entangled with similar wave functions in other people’s minds. This enables the strategies they pursue in a game to be entangled as well. I postpone discussion of entangling across minds to chapter 12 where Wendt develops it at greatest length. For now, I will simply point out that one doesn’t need quantum game theory to see that allowing the players to make their strategies contingent on each other’s play makes cooperative outcomes possible where they were not before. Cooperative game theory and the concept of correlated equilibria have long established that. The whole point of non-cooperative game theory is to analyze the hard case, where actors with no ability to make commitments to each other interact in situations where their interests at least partially conflict. Quantum analyses of the security dilemma that claim that it can be transcended between entangled actors, therefore, are about as interesting as analyses of poverty that point out that if people were given lots of bitcoins they could have a better life. The currency may be novel, but the basic idea is trivial.