I’m sure most of us have played Skyrim. I’m sure most of us have seen the NPCs that just awkwardly stand there, swaying slightly with a blank look on their face.
I’m starting to think this whole world is just an illusion. I just walked into my break room, and saw a guy just staring at the vending machine. Slightly hunched over, and swaying.
So I sat down at a table and start browsing my phone.
He’s still standing there. Same spot. No words. Not looking at a phone. Just dead staring at a vending machine which is 2/3rds empty. Not counting money. Just staring dead forward.
After a while I wondered how long he was going to do this. I walked around the side of him, looked at his face, and asked if he was ok. He grunted at me, like hmmmmph.
I went back to my table and started a stopwatch.
When my break was over he was still standing there. 22 minutes staring at a vending machine, and telling multiple people he’s fine, but also grunting at most people.
The ONLY explaination I can come up with is that he’s an NPC who failed the turing test, and this entire world doesn’t exist. I don’t exist. You don’t exist. None of this matters.
Anyone else think this is some kind of poorly coded simulation?
Sees a mentally unstable guy, thinks the entire world is a simulation.
Humanity may not make it, lol. :)
if we were living in a simulation, what would that change for you?
assuming we’re not in a simulation, we already can’t prove anyone but ourself is conscious, and even that’s a stretch
My mom told me my older brother ate one of those… unfortunately he’s still here and tormented me for most of my childhood
It is possible. But if so, I’m not so sure about the NPCs. Surely you’re not the only playable character, right? That would sound like a literal main character syndrome to me ;)
I had an uncanny experience like that as a teenager with an “NPC like” character. I was walking around a small cul-de-sac, and there was an older woman standing in front of her house, completely frozen in place, just staring off into the distance blankly.
As I’m walking past she suddenly looked at me and barked out rather aggressively “Do you know what time it is?”
I checked the time on my phone and told her it. She snapped “NO! It’s [completely different time]”, she sounded angry as hell, I actually got a little scared.
Then she just glared at me in complete silence.
I started walking away and she just turned her head, watching me, but not saying another word.
She didn’t move from the spot she was standing on.
That said I blame dementia, psychosis, drugs, or otherwise failing mental health before I’d jump to the nothing is real or everything is a simulation conclusion, but it was definitely such an uncanny feeling situation that it stuck with me to this day.
I’d assume drugs if I saw a guy staring at a vending machine for ages. That’s “took too much of something that doesn’t leave the system fast” behavior. Possibly he wanted to get something from the vending machine, but couldn’t hold on to the thought for long enough to go through the process. Perception of time gets fucked on those sorts of drugs, so he has no idea he’s been there for however long. The behavior sounds specifically like that of people I’ve known who accidently took a higher dose of edibles than intended.
The world is real but we perceive it with a brain that can read signals of it imperfectly if something goes wrong in there. That leads to strange behaviors like you described.
If you experience things like this regularly, it might be a good idea to check in with a psychiatrist. There are plenty of ways our brains can mess with our perception, without us realizing it.
Honestly, IMO it’s by definition real because we’re all here and experiencing it.
Even if it is a simulation (I personally don’t think it is, but wouldn’t really mind if it were) that doesn’t make it less real. It’s still our reality, after all.
I can’t prove to you that I exist, of course. But like, who cares about “actual existence” anyway? I’m clearly here and talking to you. Even if I were a simulation NPC or “just in your head”, I’m no less real. Probably the more important thing is that I can’t prove I’m not an unthinking NPC just following a program.
Then again, Occam’s Razor. It’d be weird if you were the only one who was actually thinking and everyone else was just mindless NPCs. It’s way more likely that we all exist and think independently (whether that be in a simulation or otherwise, doesn’t really matter).
– Frost
We cannot be living in a simulation because the amount of energy to simulate and calculate all the possible atoms, quarks, and other particles and all their simultaneous interactions every fraction of a millisecond would far exceed an exponent of zillions upon zillions of all the possible energy that could ever exist. We wouldn’t even begin to be able to comprehend anything.
“Well… the forerunners’ physics operate differently, duh!”
Uh… if you were to believe that delusion, then I wouldn’t know what to tell you; then you could just rig whatever answer you want to anything. And even if that were true, then the “real” world must be so vastly different from anything we could possibly connect with or perceive that it wouldn’t be relatable anyway and would therefore be worthless or just academic to think about. I guess you don’t want to hear it but this is unfortunately our actual life and that guy was just weird. Ask him if you can buy any potions from him next time or something.
The idea is that you would just need to simulate that level of detail if someone actually looks. You don’t have to simulate any atoms if nobody can see them. Computer games do this all the time to save ressources.
There is no real argument against a simulation just as there is none against god being an alien, just the probability is not in favour of it.
But I also believe life is just kinda what it is.
You’d still need ridiculous amounts of energy to simulate even a small fraction of our world, on the level of thousands of galaxies’ energy per second. Dr. Blitz is a literal astrophysicist who addresses this matter: https://www.youtube.com/@blitzphd
Sex is way too enjoyable for this to be a poorly coded simulation.
I think you just saw someone who needs either a break or some better mental health care.
