Game theory applied to the world is a useful simplification; reality is messy. In reality:
* Actors have access to limited computation
* The "rules" of the universe are unknowable and changing
* Available sets of actions are unknowable
* Information is unknowable, continuous, incomplete, and changes based on the frame of reference
* Even the concept of an "Actor" is a leaky abstraction
There's a field of study called Agent-based Computational Economics which explores how systems of actors behaving according to sets of assumptions behave. In this field you can see a lot of behaviour that more closely resembles real world phenomena, but of course if those models are highly predictive they have a tendency to be kept secret and monetized.
So for practical purposes, "game theory is inevitable" is only a narrowly useful heuristic. It's certainly not a heuristic that supports technological determinism.
* Actors have access to limited computation
* The "rules" of the universe are unknowable and changing
* Available sets of actions are unknowable
* Information is unknowable, continuous, incomplete, and changes based on the frame of reference
* Even the concept of an "Actor" is a leaky abstraction
There's a field of study called Agent-based Computational Economics which explores how systems of actors behaving according to sets of assumptions behave. In this field you can see a lot of behaviour that more closely resembles real world phenomena, but of course if those models are highly predictive they have a tendency to be kept secret and monetized.
So for practical purposes, "game theory is inevitable" is only a narrowly useful heuristic. It's certainly not a heuristic that supports technological determinism.