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?
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