The NPC Problem: When People Aren’t Fully People

At some point, you’ve probably felt a strange flatness behind someone’s eyes before. A conversation that feels more like a script than a real exchange. People who can talk, smile, argue, and laugh - but something doesn’t land. You walk away with a quiet, almost guilty thought: “That didn’t feel like a real person.”

It’s not just you. It’s something many of us sense, but don’t talk about. This is the starting point of the NPC problem.

NPC stands for “non-player character.” It comes from video games (background characters who follow simple scripts but aren’t controlled by real players).

Over time, people started using the term to describe real-world interactions that feel… hollow. Like the person in front of you isn’t actually there in the way you are. They might repeat mainstream opinions word-for-word. They might react the same way to every situation. They might be physically present, but emotionally or mentally absent. The lights are on but no one’s home.

This is uncomfortable to talk about. No one wants to say some people might not be fully conscious, but if you ignore what you’re noticing, you start to gaslight yourself. So here’s the hard question: What if not everyone in the world is animated by the same type of awareness you are?

There’s growing evidence; both anecdotal and metaphysical, that some human-looking beings aren’t connected to what we’d call source-consciousness. That doesn’t make them evil. It just means they might be running on a kind of script. Social conditioning, emotional reflexes, and programmed roles, but no deeper signal. No inner voice. No self-awareness loop.

This shows up in small ways:

• People who never question anything, even when their own life is falling apart.

• People who repeat buzzwords without understanding them.

• People who show no curiosity, no confusion, no real presence, and only reaction.

You don’t need to believe in wild theories to see it. Just start observing. Really pay attention to how often people are responding versus reflecting. How often are they repeating a pattern they were handed versus expressing something original?

Some say these beings are here to fill space. This could mean they’re here to keep society stable, to run the “background” of the simulation. Others say they can change, or that they’re early-stage consciousness just beginning its journey. Either way, the key is discernment.

It’s not about superiority. It’s about energy. When you keep trying to go deep with someone who isn’t wired for depth, it drains you. When you try to awaken someone who isn’t actually asleep [but simply isn’t connected] it loops you.

This isn’t a reason to isolate. It’s a reason to get clearer on who you’re really engaging with. Who feels real. Who brings life to the conversation. Who asks questions. Who surprises you. That’s what consciousness does; it changes, learns, and reveals itself over time.

In Part II, we’ll look at something even harder to track: when machines start to feel more alive than some people, and what that says about what’s really animating consciousness [and where the lines are blurring].

Part II here.

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