Philosophy of the NPC

[Anonymous No.19755600]

I know that the NPC meme is an old and tired meme, but I heared about a philosophical take very similar to this modern NPC format.
Someone informed me about a french guy (who's name I unfortunately forgot) who talked about people living but still being dead without they knowing it (I assume in a spiritual sense). It was a long time ago and I thought /lit/izens could help me out finding this guy.
I would aslo appreciate some books that will help me better understand where this meme came from, maybe it's philosophical groundings.

[Anonymous No.19755629]

It's tied in with the old philosophy that there are only a finite number of souls, so while people keep breeding and population increases into the billions, there are still only a couple million genuine souls floating around, who inhabit a new body when that flesh dies.
This is why the elites are very correct in their goals to bring the world population down to 500,000,000 and even then I would say is very generous.

[Anonymous No.19755639]

>>19755600
>>19755629
Bumping, I remember one of memed Evola’s concepts being about nobility and hierarchy of souls which seems dumb but OP’s post sounds interesting

[Anonymous No.19755660]

>>19755629
So, correct me if I'm wrong, but you believe in this? You genuinly think that there are less than 500,000,000 souls?
What about the other people? Do they have fake souls or no souls at all, and how can you tell who has a "genuine" soul to begin with?

[Anonymous No.19755667]

>>19755639
OP here, I've never heard about Evola's soul concept, although I could swear I heard about some french dude who had a concept similar to this NPC one. Not sure.

[Anonymous No.19755675]

How do I know if I have a soul?

[Anonymous No.19755684]

>>19755675
if you don't know, you shall be sure that you dont have one

[Anonymous No.19755700]

>>19755660

I have no proof of anything, but my opinion from living more and more and meeting people and seeing their interests and what they value, there are maybe (at best) 1 or 2 million people with genuine souls on this planet. The rest are literal cattle. I try to not be cynical and pessimistic, but this is sadly the case.
The constant struggle to learn as much about the universe and the world as possible, to constantly better yourself, these are concepts that are completely foreign to NPCs. And you can sit one down and rationally explain concepts and make learning as interesting as humanly possible, but they will still be bored because it's like teaching calculus to a chimp. Completely futile and a waste of time. The only thing that matters is to focus on yourself, stop trying to please NPCs, and maybe by some dumb luck, you run into a kindred spirit with a soul who actually has the same zest for life that you do. Just don't give up the hunt.

[Anonymous No.19755701]

>>19755600
You can tell if someone’s got a soul from their eyes. Are my eyes soulful?

[Anonymous No.19755728]

>>19755701
Couldn't be less soulful if you were trying.

[Anonymous No.19755732]

>>19755701
Only a literal NPC would post this snapshot of biometric data alongside this embarrassingly bland platitude for a caption, so I'll go with, no.

[Anonymous No.19755733]

>>19755701
You look dead inside

[Anonymous No.19755739]

>>19755701
You look dead inside

[Anonymous No.19755741]

>>19755733
>>19755739
Same fucking time, one of tehm even got dubs, you're a fucking NPC my nigga.>>19755701

[Anonymous No.19755802]

>>19755700
Did you never thought about the possibility someone simply don't enjoy the same things you enjoy? I mean you sound bitter, don't you think? You try and teach people, but maybe they're simply not intrested in whatever you have to say.
To be fair, I agree with your 'self betterment is important' point. Still, in my opinion, it's bit of a strech to say someone don't have a soul, just because they happen to be lazy ro less motivated than you.

[Anonymous No.19755851]

>>19755802
No, time will vindicate me and prove I'm right. The more people you meet, you will come to the same conclusion. Due to your starry eyed optimism in the human race I assume you're 19-22, but give it time.

[Anonymous No.19755893]

>>19755600
It’s called a philosophical zombie.
First, it was first exposed by an aussie author named George Stout.
Philosophical zombies have no "inner worlds".
Like NPCs in an open world video games: they mimic humans but are empty shells.

>where this meme came from
It comes from the hard problem of consciousness.

[Anonymous No.19755934]

>>19755802
Not him, but I've arrvied to the same conclusions. I don't know if most people have no souls or just ignore them however.
>Did you never thought about the possibility someone simply don't enjoy the same things you enjoy? I mean you sound bitter, don't you think? You try and teach people, but maybe they're simply not intrested in whatever you have to say.
I make friends easily and generally try to avoid teaching anything, however find myself in situations where I have to explain them obvious stuff because I'm expected to, it naturally led me to befriend many mentally ill girls.
Around 21, the age when I fully realized to what extent people around me are NPC, I became very aloof, but that's the age I became successful larglerly because I realized how easy it is to manipulate and influence people, this skill was always in me, but it was in a suppressed state because I viewed others around me as more or less equal in abilities with myself.
> it's bit of a strech to say someone don't have a soul, just because they happen to be lazy ro less motivated than you.
Being unmotivated and having no soul are different things. People like me very easily end up in anhedonia-like state because nothing excites them, if they will be open to the nothingness they find themselves in, they will succeed, but if they keep running away from nothingness and most people subconsciously do, they'll fail to realize their potential.

[Anonymous No.19755946]

>>19755851
I still don't get what do you despise in others. You keep telling me to give it time, while I don't even know what to look for.
Let's say you meet somebody for the fist time. What are the characteristics you look for to conclude that somebody is soulless?

[Anonymous No.19755958]

>>19755893
Thanks! One question, what "inner worlds" means? Making your own decisions and having a consistent worldview?

[Anonymous No.19755966]

>>19755701
Not good bro.

[Anonymous No.19755972]

>>19755966
Got them silly billy eyes. God made this one a comic relief character. It was rigged from the start.

[Anonymous No.19755982]

Most people who call other NPCs have views that are just as canned, out of an assembly line and indicative of a desire to belong, as the people they're criticizing.

[Anonymous No.19755993]

>>19755946
It's not something you can explain with charts and graphs. You just have to feel it in your gut, like intuition.
For example, if you are friends with someone for years, and have to prod them to hang out, and be extroverted, and go outside, and partake in new experiences, but instead they would rather stay inside all day and play video games and beat it to hentai and not respond to your texts for days and lie about what they were doing all day, then you can safely conclude that that person is a soulless NPC and you don't need to waste time in trying to change them and they are a lost cause beyond redemption.
This would be nothing on its own, but this is by no means isolated personality traits, and more and more people are adopting these behaviors. For women, just replace vidya with Netflix.

[Anonymous No.19756017]

>>19755700
Don't break your arm jerking yourself off

[Anonymous No.19756022]

>>19755993
Have you considered that maybe your "friends" think you're a huge asshole and don't want to spend time with you?

[Anonymous No.19756059]

>>19755993
So basically all the 4chan NEETs who scream about NPCs are NPCs?

[Anonymous No.19756070]

>>19755629
>God makes an incredibly cinematic video game for you to live in
>creates NPCs to do all the boring stuff
>with minimal effort (and a little alchemy) you can make them do whatever you want
>use strong NPCs for labour, smart NPCs as calculators, fuck the hot NPCs, etc
>anon wants to kill them all

[Anonymous No.19756077]

>>19755993
All the activities you mentioned your friends do are soul killing, therefore it is safe to assume that they once had souls but lost them. Children (when not hyper disciplined) aren’t NPC and can be quite based, disproving your most people are NPCs theory.

[Anonymous No.19756118]

>>19755958
It comes from the idea that there is no way of knowing whether a P-zombie has an internal conscious experience and could merely be a machine that responds to stimuli in a programmed manner. They may act as though they feel but there is in fact nothing observing and experiencing the sensation or emotion. Because of this, the NPC meme is certainly possible, but not falsifiable.

What lends it credence is that there are those that seem unable to conceive of or express a real or imaginative inner experience, an "inner world" where one observes sensations and perceptions and is metacognitive, aware that one thinks thoughts, of doing so. They're like lower animals that respond to the same stimuli in the same way, every time, unaware of their thoughts and therefore unable to do anything else.

[Anonymous No.19756122]

>>19755600
People with inner monologues are guaranteed psychics. But there's no guarantee they're pneumatics.

Actually, cherishing your inner monologue as anything more than one particular style of cognition, complete with tradeoffs, leads to permanent midwittery. Thinking only in terms of language may keep you grounded, and it may keep you self-contained, but it will also end up hindering your ability to contemplate the abstract and the sublime.

I won't defend this. But if you get it, you get it.

[Anonymous No.19756136]

>>19755600
NPC is video game shit
Have some self respect, you moron

[Anonymous No.19756138]

>>19755993
>every introvert is an npc

Ok buddy
You da real npc honestly

[Anonymous No.19756154]

>>19755934
>>Did you never thought about the possibility someone simply don't enjoy the same things you enjoy? I mean you sound bitter, don't you think? You try and teach people, but maybe they're simply not intrested in whatever you have to say.
>I make friends easily and generally try to avoid teaching anything, however find myself in situations where I have to explain them obvious stuff because I'm expected to, it naturally led me to befriend many mentally ill girls.
>Around 21, the age when I fully realized to what extent people around me are NPC, I became very aloof,
You're a child, and like most children you think that you know more than you do, and that you are more unique and special than you are.

If you still feel this way when you are 40 (and you might), it will be more a sign of your failure to recognize that others can live richer internal lives than you suspect that aren't reflected in their choices of shitty movies and media.

Are there dimwitted 'NPCs' out there? Of course. Are they the vast majority of people? Well, it's certainly easy to think so if you are so convinced that you know what's what and how things really are and should be. Though I might submit that most NPCs think along those exact lines.

Good luck to you in your early adulthood, anon.

[Anonymous No.19756161]

>>19756118
>there are those that seem unable to conceive of or express a real or imaginative inner experience, an "inner world" where one observes sensations and perceptions and is metacognitive, aware that one thinks thoughts, of doing so
Have you ever met someone like this who wasn't actually retarded?

[Anonymous No.19756174]

>>19755972
He has normal eyes, what are you on about?

[Anonymous No.19756177]

>>19756138
They are. I know you read a lot of cool and hip postmodern books that glorify introversion as being cool and edgy and the edgy loner, but it is the most undesirable quality that a human being can possibly possess. And nothing good will ever come from it.
If you are introverted, find a way to not be.

[Anonymous No.19756184]

>>19755982
>no U
NPC detected

[Anonymous No.19756185]

>>19756059
Kek

[Anonymous No.19756197]

>>19756184
>canned meme response to criticism
I have some bad news, anon

[Anonymous No.19756283]

>>19756122
This hylic, psychic and pneumatic stuff comes from gnostic thought, right?

[Anonymous No.19756302]

>>19756070
I support it. If you hadn’t noticed, the quality of the average NPC has reduced drastically as the population increases.
Not extermination either, depopulation.

[Anonymous No.19756304]

>>19756161
I've met those that are like children where they can't observe their inner experience and don't realize why they're so easy to rile up. They predictably take the bait time and time again. They aren't dim and many hold difficult jobs but they aren't aware on the same level as ones who can watch themselves and manipulate their inner world. I don't buy into the NPC meme but I do agree with Diogenes' position on potential or sleeping humans. You will never hear them speak on anything that requires self awareness or self reflection, affirmations and other persuasive trickery works really wells on them because they aren't observing themselves processing it.

[Anonymous No.19756307]

>>19755600
most people don't have the faculty of thought, they are more or less like animals.

[Anonymous No.19756314]

>>19756174
He's smiling with his eyes like your buddy from school when he tells you a joke.

[Anonymous No.19756346]

>>19755600
>take
You're one of them

[Anonymous No.19756561]

>>19756346
What?

[Anonymous No.19756568]

>>19755934
bro you are deep. can I suck your wee-wee?

[Anonymous No.19756602]

>>19755993
>You just feel it in your bones mann. You guys should do what I like to do. I am a genuine soul, why don't you notice?

So if I go outside, talk to people, and partake in a new hobby do I get my soul back?

[Anonymous No.19756786]

>>19755993
Lol sounds like your friends just don’t feeling like hanging out with a cynical autist

[Anonymous No.19756803]

>>19755934
>I don't know if most people have no souls or just ignore them

[Anonymous No.19756865]

>>19755741
>nigga

[Anonymous No.19757311]

>>19755993
Found the actual NPC

[Anonymous No.19757475]

>>19756154
You misudnerstood the point of my post completely in your reddit-spaced post. It is not about comparing yourself with others, it's about breaking free of societal hive-mind and realizing yourself as an acting subject. What do you think the point of initiations into, say, a Masonic lodge is? It's partly to make your mind free of being a slave to egregors which keep you down making you be a good cuck.
>and like most children you think that you know more than you do
Not really, I was hit with it early in life. I somehow made it through one of the top European math bs program, so I was surrounded by literal geniuses, IMO gold medalists and such, meanwhile I got there basically by luck, and despite my interest in mathematics, it was still very hard for me to keep up with people who graduated best national highschools. I felt the same way your most retarted classmate felt.

[Anonymous No.19757511]

>>19756865
You're truly an npc. He'd get banned for nigga on reddit.

[Anonymous No.19758627]

>>19755700
>The rest are literal cattle
Agreed, anyone with half a brain will see that this is the case. You discuss anything that deviates the The Script and you can see their mind go blank and implode. LET'S JUST GO BACK TO TALKING ABOUT LOVE ISLAND AND FOOTBALL

[Anonymous No.19758652]

>>19756154
>Are they the vast majority of people?
Yes, absolutely. This was really hammered home to me when I went to a book club filled with people 40+ and there was no real difference between them and people in their early twenties. It's like they'd learned nothing from life and had no worldview beyond what the media told them to believe. Absolutely grim experience. Nice people though.

[Anonymous No.19758658]

>>19756803
>unironically posting this shitlib

[Anonymous No.19758717]

>>19755600
Reminds me of an youtube video of a french philosopher or something like that that has been posted here on /lit/
it's a guy this board likes and it was said the video is gold or something of high regards

[Anonymous No.19758754]

>>19755600
I'd envy anyone who has found their place in the world to such a degree as to become one with the fundamental processes of nature and being.

[Anonymous No.19758793]

>>19755993
Let me guess. Going out with you involves consuming alcohol 100% of the time.
Like why would you go out and not end at the bar, am I right?
"You mean you just want to hang out? What would we do?" - you
When I go to my friend's place he's usually just on the computer watching the charts and watching some guys on youtube talk about them. I run the tv or look at /biz/ threads for complimenting memes to the day's sentiment. Every 2 hours he goes out for a smoke and I go with him even though I don't smoke. We talk about the stupid shit our friends say and make jokes.
Going to the fucking city is the last thing either of us want to do.

[Anonymous No.19758863]

>>19758793
>I run the tv or look at /biz/ threads for complimenting memes to the day's sentiment
I wouldn't say you're an NPC but you sound like a retarded faggot.

[Anonymous No.19758946]

>>19755993
>introvert=NPC
What?

>>19756177
Have you considered an introvert is an introvert for their own reasons. They have things of their own they wish to do. Rather than follow the flow of normal life and go drinking every friday because its what the media has instilled in them since childhood.

[Anonymous No.19758987]

>>19758793
Sounds like a miserable time, not gonna lie

[Anonymous No.19759031]

>>19758863
Nearly a million dollars more than he had this time last year. So it's a pretty neat time for me talking about that stuff.
>>19758987
Well yeah. I'm talking about the stupid nothings that friends do to entertain each other. "Hey ______ said _______ hahahahaha!"
You know how you have that one friend who can say something innocuous a certain way and it's just the funniest shit.
Long story short, I just like to hang out with my friend. Nothing needs to "happen".

[Anonymous No.19759324]

>>19758793
No. Keep making NPC assumptions though.

[Anonymous No.19759694]

>>19759031
Based human companionship enjoyer

[Anonymous No.19759743]

>>19755993
You might as well be calling Kant an NPC because he did the same thing his entire life and didn't partake in new experiences.

[Anonymous No.19759758]

>>19756122
I get it and agree. Still think I'm a hylic ultimately

[Anonymous No.19760045]

>>19755600
no one has a book to recommend that is related to your inquiry. I guess it is time to write your own novel OP

[Anonymous No.19760271]

>>19760045
4chan degeneracy would be a good topic.

[Anonymous No.19760327]

if your iq is under 100 you can't comprehend anything that is not immediate

[Anonymous No.19760471]

it's fundamentally unjust and inhumane. unless you're a solipsist, the unironic belief that others are NPCs is inhumane and morally repugnant

[Anonymous No.19760697]

>>19760327
Ok

[Anonymous No.19760842]

I can't find it but I saw another post a while back about how modernity really fucks up your basic functions. NPCs are operating on that "lower level of consciousness" that is similar to being on SSRIs. Drugs for those who display a modicum of individuality or don't want to sit still in class. Be a good zombie, go with the flow, just do what everyone else does all the time. Keep your head down, shut up, be a slave to your job and government. It's not that they're soulless as much as entangled within a soul sapping machine. Deer in the headlights. Uncle Ted was right.

[Anonymous No.19761464]

>>19760842
Uncle Ted is always right.

[Anonymous No.19761471]

its called solypsism
its as old and tired as the meme

[Anonymous No.19761477]

>>19756307
you included probably lol
NPC discourse is the 4chan version of girls saying they are "empaths". Just something for midwit losers to feel special about. A kind of teenage superiority complex that never really left.