As was quickly discovered, the ‘brute force computing’ tactic, as the unbounded rationality assumption was known, was a failure because the decision space to be searched for any moderately realistic problem was of unmanageable proportions. For example, even contemporary machines take an inordinate amount of time to examine all possible two-move sequences in the opening stages of a chess game, because the number of branches in the relevant decision tree undergoes a combinatorial explosion. Not surprisingly, this tactic was quickly dropped, and much effort has subsequently been devoted to the development of more sophisticated and realistic alternatives. If we are to understood the development and maintenance of cooperative and trusting relations, similar unrealistic assumptions will have to be abandoned too.

XREF: Connects to the broader argument that rational-choice/unbounded rationality assumptions about cooperation must be abandoned, mirroring the chess example.

Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking…, loc. 738