this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2026
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No Stupid Questions

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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?

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[โ€“] Flagstaff@programming.dev -2 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[โ€“] ExtremeUnicorn@feddit.org 2 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago)

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.