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?

  • celeste@kbin.earth
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    7 hours ago

    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.