Defining NPCs

Originally published January 23, 2023

The ‘NPC’ meme, non-playable character, is a phrase used to suggest that a person is not capable of critical thought at all and only do what they are told to do. NPC originates from video games as characters who exist in the background and are typified by having a few pre-programmed responses. As they can only say what the programmers wrote them to say, they are not really interactive at all. The analogy to humans being NPCs is to broadly suggest that the person does not have any original opinions, everything they believe was told to them and they are effectively ‘programmed’.

With its roots in video games, comical appearance in memes as an expressionless grey face and used as an insult, the phrase is weak in common use and prevents us from calling out people behaving like NPCs because of this. The problem is often when describing what makes someone an NPC, people use exaggerating and simply inaccurate terms like saying ‘They aren’t human’, ‘they can’t think’, ‘they have no inner monologue’. This doesn’t serve anyone any purpose; we want to accurately explain exactly what this behaviour looks like.

Discussing what makes someone an NPC and if it is possible for them to ever become ‘awake’ are certainly interesting points to discuss. From corporate brainwashing, additives in food, education system failings and many others, it is good to understand why it is becoming increasingly apparent that large swaths of society seem to be genuinely unable to think for themselves and repeat catch phrases when faced with questions they don’t understand. However, there is no point in discussing what we believe is a serious problem with society being filled with people who have no original thoughts, and how to fix it, if we cannot define what exactly it means for someone to not be able to think for themselves.

A great way to discuss what defines an NPC, is to consider how we can introduce the concept to neutral observers in a way that does not make them dismiss the phrase, and instead becoming aware of exactly what behaviour to be on the lookout for. The original definition of NPC as someone who is incapable of critical thought is perfectly accurate, but it paints a binary picture and critical thought is such a wide ranging field, to suggest someone can’t think critically at all is a fairly large exaggeration. It would be more accurate to suggest the ability to think critically lies on a spectrum, and those we would call NPCs are far lower on it than others, but where exactly? How could we ever attempt to explain this to an observer, or even use it to understand why NPCs think and act the way they do?

It is very easy for the person accused of being an NPC to dismiss being described as not being able to think critically or having no inner monologue because they just aren’t true, and the person who used the phrase knows it as well. Neutral observers would also dismiss the claim because it genuinely makes the accuser look childish to describe someone as not being able to think at all, it is akin to just saying someone has no brain. You need a factual term that is not generally an insult. When we can define what an NPC is, then we can finally discuss the problem in detail.

A goal should be to make NPC appropriate to use in common discourse exactly how ‘Karen’ has become. NPC as it currently is doesn’t achieve that, and I believe the reason it doesn’t is because NPC is so poorly defined. With an accurate, solid definition and a constant reminder to these people of exactly what behaviour they are engaging in that makes them an NPC, observers will notice this too. We want what NPC behaviour to be widely known and understood.

NPCs; A spotting guide

There are two reasons why NPCs act the way they do. The first is that being part of a group is the most important thing in their lives. Their entire existence depends on putting themselves in the majority which allows them to effectively outsource their thinking to the group via an appeal to popularity. To the NPC, “I can’t be wrong, because the majority of people agree with me” describes nearly the full extent of their deductive reasoning ability.

They have no ability to draw conclusions and will actively avoid situations where they may be pressured to. They are only capable of repeating whatever data is shown to them by their group. When no data is provided, the NPC will seek answers from authority figures within their group and explicitly will not seek the data itself. The NPC will deny the data exists if they do not have immediate access to it or claiming it cannot be interpreted by anyone except the person who compiled it.

Fantastic examples of this have been demonstrated in ‘herd mentality’ social experiments where unsuspecting members of the public are placed in controlled scenarios where everyone else is a paid actor. The actors engage in irrational behaviour such as standing up and sitting down for no reason repeatedly when a whistle is played, and the subjects will follow along without being instructed to. “Everyone else is doing it, this must be right” overpowers what we would expect is normal reason but the subjects who fell for the experiment never truly had ‘normal reason’ to begin with, only what the majority of other people were doing. Respondents who fell for the trap would state they suspected something was wrong but went ahead with it anyway. These are the NPCs who value being in a majority made up of total strangers they have never met, over their own intuition when there was no immediate availability for them to escape the situation, or to seek answers from an authority figure.

Along with an extreme desire to be in a majority, the NPC appeals to authority at any given opportunity. They outsource their thinking to authority figures such that they can never feel ‘wrong’, their leaders can only ever be mistaken at best. “I trust that people smarter than me make the right decisions” is a common theme among them. When the authority figure is correct, the person feels good about themselves for trusting an authority figure who to them, deserves to be trusted. When the authority figure is wrong, the person still feels good about themselves for trusting someone ‘smarter’ than them, and they believe that the authority figure was acting in a way that was based on the best evidence. The NPC must always believe they would have come to the same conclusion with the same data, it is critical to them.

The NPC can never be wrong because they never take responsibility for their decisions, they are only ever doing what people told them to. For if they ever admitted that an authority figure or the majority was incorrect, they would then have to consider making their own decisions. This is completely unacceptable for an NPC who will never allow themselves to make decisions for themselves for such actions risks them being wrong and being wrong risks their acceptance in the group. Everyone in the group must think the same thing where all group members are horrified by the prospect of not being in the majority group where they are safe from consequences of their own actions, and they will never risk anything that could see them removed from the group. Their appeal to authority is less about satisfying their own ego, and more about maintaining allegiance to the group although they would never admit it.

Here we must also define that someone who is legitimately exhibiting NPC behaviour is not the same as someone being simply dumb and being unaware of their own ignorance. There are many reasons why someone may not know the answer to a question about societal trends and come to irrational conclusions. We can however draw a clear line between those who make incorrect guesses based on very limited, cherry picked data or pure anecdotes, and those to whom there is never any question, there is just a deferment via changing the subject, name calling or physically leaving which is followed up by them seeking their opinion from their group or authority figure. A dumb person might come up with an original ridiculous conclusion that makes no sense, but an NPC will never attempt to deduce their own conclusions.

What exactly makes an someone an NPC?

With these points that accurately describe why NPCs act the way they do, it is time to explain how they act. In that regard, I believe the most accurate way to educate others about the reality of NPCs living among us, is to correctly identify people by two core traits: NPCs do not have the ability to infer or extrapolate and not only that, they genuinely do not believe it is humanly possible to do so. This is why they will never attempt to interpret data themselves and dismiss anyone who does. This may well be an innate trait they were born with. These are the defining aspects of all NPCs. Anyone who has those traits is an NPC, and someone is not an NPC if they can do either of them. It can be used to easily explain all NPC behaviours and especially explain why they are so easily propagandised. Reducing the full scope of all NPC behaviour to two words that are accurate and not an insult, gives the phrase significantly more power.

Infer

verb: infer; 3rd person present: infers; past tense: inferred; past participle: inferred; gerund or present participle: inferring

deduce or conclude (something) from evidence and reasoning rather than from explicit statements.

Extrapolate

verb: extrapolate; 3rd person present: extrapolates; past tense: extrapolated; past participle: extrapolated; gerund or present participle: extrapolating

extend the application of (a method or conclusion) to an unknown situation by assuming that existing trends will continue or similar methods will be applicable.

Someone who is an NPC is unable to infer or extrapolate because they are only able to witness and react to the world around them as it is, they cannot ‘read between the lines’. They can observe and react to stimuli in an identical manner to non-NPCs and as such are perfectly capable of working in most forms of employment, however only as a worker. They will never progress to manager or be able to run a business.

The difference will be immediately noticeable in every instance of witnessing an NPC being forced to react to new information that might conflict with the prevailing belief of their group, for they will refuse and not even attempt to draw their own conclusions on anything when data is presented to them. No matter what the problem is, they will always seek the opinion of their group or leadership figures in order to appear ‘correct’ and not risking their safe position within their group where they are always in the majority, and always a follower.

In a debate situation whether planned or spontaneous, if an NPC ever comes across someone who is inferring or extrapolating data to generate an original logical conclusion, and without their group or authority figures to rely on, the clockwork response from them will always be asking for ‘proof’ or a ‘source’. This normally would be an appropriate response, however the only evidence this person will ever accept of this logical conclusion is if a leadership figure within their party also agrees. Without their group’s approval of this new belief, they will call the conclusion fake, a conspiracy or accuse you of being a shill.

No matter what, an NPC does not believe that inferring or extrapolating data to arrive at logical conclusions, is actually possible. For the obsessive desire for a source that fits their specific criteria, which can never be met, would mean that the claim is no longer an inference or extrapolation at that point. It is either an opinion they disagree with, or ‘the truth’ they agree with. Even if it was their groups authority figure who claimed it, it is still never an inference or extrapolation if the claim has been explicitly stated previously where such statement is either an opinion, or the truth to them.

This is a very important point I emphasize for good reason; engaging in debates with these people is completely pointless and you have to understand and accept these people cannot be reasoned with or expected to change their mind based on any evidence you provide, they only accept evidence that their group provides. The best way to deal with them is not to prove they are wrong, but instead demonstrate to everyone else around them, the gaping flaws in the their arguments, and ask them to prove they are right. Find a hole in their logic which is extremely easy, and the NPC will make a complete fool out of themselves as they demonstrate their total inability to explain it because they only know the words to say, not what the words mean to construct them in a new sentence.

You should never attempt to provide evidence for your claims directly to an NPC because they will dismiss it immediately. Instead let them talk and let all of their peers witness what it sounds like to hear someone who can’t infer or extrapolate, attempt to explain their beliefs. This is when your evidence comes out, making it clear that other people listening to you hear your evidence as the NPC watches on and will get very irrational, very quickly and make it clear to everyone just how completely propagandised they are. Truly, the best weapon against them is their own voice. Let them contradict themselves, point out the contradiction, and let them try to get out of it, they can't.

Inferring and extrapolating, two sides of the same NPC coin.

The simplest explanation of NPCs being unable to infer is observing how they are incapable of noticing when a coincidence is no longer a coincidence, by joining two data sets together to arrive at a logical conclusion to demonstrate an intrinsic link. They only ever understand that data sets exist in isolation and data cannot be joined, unless they are told they are joined by someone they trust, or someone who is in their group. They are completely incapable of comprehending how a ‘normal’ person with no expertise in a given field is able to link two sets of data together as their entire life has been refusing to ever attempt it themselves from fear of the consequences of being wrong and outcast from their group.

A favourite catchphrase among NPCs, which unintentionally demonstrates their inability to infer, is to declare ‘correlation does not equal causation’ in a ‘gotcha’ moment as a method to attack an inference made by another person. Of course, correlation not always equaling causation is true and understanding this is a fairly basic scientific principle. The use of this phrase in this context is telling because the assertion is that there is no proof of a link between the two. However that is the entire point of making a preliminary inference, to suggest there is a link and to look into it further. When workers using certain building materials started presenting with lung damage decades into their job, there was no definitive proof of a link, because this was the beginning of the evidence that was surfacing. When new data is received and analysed, to suggest that any inference on a correlation is immediately wrong because of a lack of hard evidence of the causation, which of course can not exist at that moment in time without the correlation first being acknowledged, is grossly unscientific. It is a clear sign that the person you are dealing with does not believe inferring is possible at all. As before, the only argument they will ever accept is not an inference at that point.

This inability to infer makes NPCs extremely susceptible to propaganda since if they only hear one side of a story from someone within their group, they will not believe that additional sides exist at all. The group cannot be wrong, they are the majority. It is absurd, but we must remember these people fully believe this. This sums up why NPCs are all extremely ignorant about politics. They can be lifelong partisan supporters of a certain party, or swing voters who change every election. All that matters is their opinions on certain political issues were advertised directly to them in the weeks prior to an election, and they now believe it and will defend it as if they believed this their entire life.

We must remember that to an NPC, if they are incapable of a certain thought process for whatever reason, they believe everyone else is incapable of it. Consider how you would draw an object in 4 dimensions. This impossible task is precisely how NPCs view anyone who claims to be able to extrapolate. Their ironclad reality of no one being able to deduce a conclusion that was not written by someone else can never be broken. It seems like an absurd analogy, but I encourage the reader to remember the times they have engaged with certain people in the past and how they felt legitimately angry at how they can’t understand obvious logical conclusions such as if A = B, and if B = C, then A = C. We can’t comprehend how they don’t get it and it is infuriating to deal with, and in reverse they cannot comprehend how you did it. They are not dismissing your claims because they are biased, partisan or stupid, they are dismissing your claims because to them, you made it all up and logic can only be applied in retrospect when the answers are already known.

Peoples inability to infer is exploited daily by media companies who trust a sizeable proportion of their reader base are unable to understand profit motives and bias in advertising. We live in an age of ‘sponsored content journalism’ where instead of corporations taking out half page ads in the newspaper selling their new housing development, they pay a journalist to write a half page article about the latest trendy, booming development about to be built and interviewing happy ‘residents’. It of course, is all scripted, and an advertisement. Much the same as ‘health update’ TV commercials and scripted advertisements on morning TV shows. The NPC does not understand this and believes the host is genuinely interested in the product being sold.

To an observant person, we can see these are ads. We know the testimonials are fake and while it might well be a good place to live or the products useful, we can infer that if a journalist or host is promoting one specific business in a field of general public interest, this person is being paid to pretend this as public interest news and the testimonials are fake. To an NPC however, they are unable to infer this unless the words ‘paid actor’ appear on the screen which of course, is no longer an inference if that occurred. The NPC sees a journalist or TV host doing their job and sees a company selling products. There is no immediately visible link between the two to suggest they are working together and faking a testimonial; thus they are effortlessly fooled by corporate propaganda.

As media personalities, especially sporting personalities are one of the NPCs most trusted sources, this makes their presence incredibly valuable in commercials and why companies will pay huge dollars to get athletes to advertise the likes of solar panels. NPCs are so easily manipulated and so numerous, companies can spend millions to get a famous athlete to say they use their product, and the companies know they will make that money back from the zounds of people who decide immediately they will go out and buy it.

For a more specific example, NPCs also demonstrate an inability to infer when it comes to discussions on house prices, where the they will always default to a ‘supply and demand’ logic. This is what they are told by politicians who desperately want to keep house prices rising to appease the homeowner demographic. NPC’s only understanding of market forces are if there is more demand for a commodity or if supply is reduced, the price will go up in a binary see-saw. As a result, they cannot grasp the concept of why buying property in order to leave them vacant, is actually more profitable than renting them out.

Without an explicit written statement to them about why this happens, they cannot figure it out. The wider conversation about housing affordability is prevented from ever being an informed discussion because so much of society is genuinely unable to infer, thus understand, unwritten motives from those who do nothing to stop practices that inflate house prices while profiting from doing so. Society will continue to suffer from so much of the population not understanding why people who profit from high house prices, lie about the forces that make them rise. Everyone has run into these people who fully own a house and support rising prices because they will feel cheated out if their property decreases in value. They will never sell the house, will never realise any loss, and house prices rising causes their bills and grocery prices to rise. But they simply can not link any of this together.

With those explanations and examples, I hope to make it clear how an inability to infer is a defining trait of an NPC. For those who know these people in real life, you will be able to explain almost every opinion they have on societal issues was taught to them, they have no original thoughts as a direct result of their inability to infer.

Maths shouldn’t be unpopular, but keeping it that way is very popular

When it comes to extrapolation, NPCs are unable to do this as well because their inability to extrapolate comes from a similar place to their inability to infer, which is because they simply cannot comprehend how it is possible for someone to analyse data and arrive at new conclusions not yet written by an authority figure. This absolute refusal to believe it is possible it directly ties to the most important aspect of their life, which is always being ‘right’ within the safety of their majority group, under their trusted leaders. For if an NPC ever attempted to extrapolate data, this would mean that there is a chance that their beliefs would differ from the current belief everyone within their group has who did not attempt to predict trends into the future. This is an unacceptable risk to the point they determine it is impossible, as total unification of the group is critical.

We can consider the many cases of people who claim that diets do not work because ‘the weight comes back on’. Regardless of poor food choices and a lack of exercise, NPCs fundamentally do not understand that if you are acting in a certain way that creates a certain result, if you continue to take those actions, the results will continue to occur because they have never been exposed to the ‘end state’. There is only ever the present and the ever-shifting forwards future they never reach. They have no understanding of how the present becomes the past in the future, because that would acknowledge that you can predict the future based on the present which again, admitting to would threaten their understanding of reality and cause and effect. This might seem like an absurd statement but I encourage the reader to think about this when talking to an NPC, you will witness it in full effect.

The inability for NPCs to infer is why they are utterly incapable of noticing when a coincidence is no longer a coincidence, and their inability to extrapolate is why they do not believe it is possible to follow trends to their logical, future conclusion. They cannot predict the future unless someone ‘smarter’ than them tells them what the future is at what point the NPC does not believe this was an extrapolation, it is simply ‘settled science’ or some variation of it because again, they have no concept of extrapolation.

This fundamental belief of extrapolating not being possible is maintained among NPCs through a deliberate assault on the teaching of mathematics. It is no coincidence that mathematics score rankings among western countries are falling across the board. In a society where being ‘nerdy’ is more acceptable, praised in pop culture and even a title people proudly apply to themselves, general mathematical knowledge is trending downwards. Extrapolation requires maths knowledge to understand as it is entirely about understanding rates of change (acceleration/deceleration). When you engage with an NPC and discuss future predictions, you will witness how maths, the universal truth, is completely illegible to them.

A fantastic example of NPCs inability to extrapolate was the anti-Brexit campaign which stated that the number of immigrants arriving in Britain was only around 0.5% of the total population, and the nation could easily handle it. It was an intellectually dishonest campaign which deliberately conflated net and rate increase. People who strongly wanted England to remain the EU knew that a sizeable portion of the population reading this would believe Britain can easily handle these immigration levels forever because they are so low. People who cannot extrapolate believe only 0.5% of the population are immigrants coming in at any given time, they only understand net, not rate.

In 5, 10, 20 years in the future, the NPC fully believes that the immigrant population will always be 0.5% because it is only ever what it is now, it has nothing to do with what it was in the past and the country can handle it because ‘it’s just 0.5%’. If it is 0.5% now, in 10 years the immigrant population would therefore be at least 5% higher than it is currently. Not to them however, for in 2033, the population of immigrants will be 0.5% of what the current population is, as it always will be.

Millions of people in Britain who believed this were completely unable to extrapolate what happens if you add a 0.5% immigration rate every year when the existing rate of population increase is only 0.4%. We have a situation where normally Britain would see its population increase from 67M today, to 72.5M in 20 years. 0.5% continued immigration would see the population rise from 67M to 80.1M. 7.6M more people vying for housing in 20 years in a country that is estimated to build 3.4M dwellings in the same time frame. An increase in population of 19.5%. The NPC believes it is 0.5%. This is the level of mathematical ability we are dealing with and the perfect example of how these people have no ability to extrapolate. You can find many other examples of their inability to extrapolate in any discussion which involves rates such as tax rates, employment rates and emissions reduction rates.

We can explain how a sizeable portion of the population is unable to extrapolate with this example. Again, an appropriate example everyone can understand is house prices. We should all generally understand what happens if you add 16M people to a country that builds 3.4M houses in 20 years. Once someone understands what it looks like when someone can’t extrapolate, they will notice many more instances of people being unable to extrapolate, and associate this with being an NPC.

Conclusion

I believe the topic of NPCs is a fascinating one to discuss and I could go on for many more pages of examples, but my prime goal through writing this is to simply give accurate definitions to describe precisely how they think and act. It is important to prevent the phrase being solely political in nature as this greatly diminishes the accuracy and power of the phrase and it really isn’t one that should allow itself to be dismissed as a mere insult.

NPCs have always existed and always will, our best method to deal with the fact these people who are so effortlessly propagandised and have measurable impact on elections, is to constantly remind them and others that the ability to infer and extrapolate is normal human behaviour and highlight their inability to do so to observers. When wider society is more able to identify those they are talking to are a fully propagandised person, this should then reduce wider societies desire to trust what others, the majority, think and to instead think for themselves. For the NPCs are not an example of what ‘others’ think, they are only ever an example of what their propagandists believe, who know that when enough people believe the same thing, this will pressure slightly stronger willed individuals to also believe it. As this proportion of the population grows, increasingly stronger willed individuals will fall for the increasing pressure of being in a majority.

We must always do what we can to make a clear case to those who would be propagandised, that the majority they feel pressured to join are incapable of explaining why they believe what they do. When NPCs are given more and more opportunities to speak for themselves, they will always demonstrate their sheer lack of critical thinking skills because they are genuinely ignorant of their own deficiencies. It only takes a small amount of observing to make people realise these people should not be followed, and that is what we want. To apply a perfectly accurate label such as NPC to these propagandised people, backed up by legitimate, accurate definitions that explain their behaviour, is a powerful tool we should continue to use, and use properly.