In my personal conception of an NPC, the difference is consumption vs. creation. I invite you to understand this idea in your own idiomatic way, if you're not an NPC.
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If as
@Logo_Daedalus says the video game is the definitive media paradigm of our present age, then it's fitting that we answer one game metaphor, the NPC, with another, the free-2-play model. In F2P, 90% of players don't pay, 9% pay a little, and 1% pay 90% of the revenue.2 replies 11 retweets 70 likesShow this thread -
You could be an NPC on twitter and still be a PC in The Real World™; many people have hobbies, and if you do original work in the domain of your hobby, whether it's beer brewing, sewing, or relentlessly optimizing KPIs to drive customer engagement, then you are PC in your hobby
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But when we talk about NPCs, we mean 2 groups of people. The 1st, most obvious, are those who create NOTHING. Their mental universe is populated by mass media; Netflix; tv, video games, sports fandom. All of those can be OK but if you don't go beyond them you are meaningless
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The second group of people are NPCs specifically in the realm of philosophy and ideology. Their situation is trickier. Much of my account is an attempt to shake this second group out of their complacency. It's Sisyphean and if I'm honest I just like twitter dopamine hits
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Gamification: we must imagine Sisyphus grinding out just one more quest ma, and then I'll come to dinner I swear. His guild is counting on him.
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Compression algorithms like ZIP and PNG operate by eliminating redundant bits. The compressed artifact contains only "unique" bits in the information-theoretic sense. "Redundant" bits are removed. If humanity were compressed, how many bits of you would make it?
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If you only consume mass things you will only have mass thoughts. This is what originally drew me to the rationalists in the vein of Scott Alexander, who spend endless ours filling their cognitive toolbox with useful gadgets and then build a house that looks like everyone else's
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0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked Retweeted 0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked
Something I have tried hard to understand is what boundaries exist in our minds; what warping of cognitive space causes us to think in predictable, common ways?https://twitter.com/0x49fa98/status/1034162623799906304 …
0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked added,
0 HP Lovecraft, Eldritch and Void-Soaked @0x49fa98When you know the name of a spirit you can command it. The spirit world, the occult world, is in truth the world of words and ideas. What is a spirit? A virtual thing, in the body, yes, of the body, but also somehow ephemeral, made of invisible things, words and perceptionsShow this thread1 reply 6 retweets 57 likesShow this thread -
Via rationalism, "Mental stopsigns" are real, they are words or ideas that cause you to turn back and not journey down a particular line of reasoning. They exist everywhere. Some common ones: "Capitalism" "The Corporations" "Racism" "Oppression" "the Jews" “the Patriarchy”
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I think of it as literally carving pathways in the brain. So if there’s a new idea or “mental stopsign”, it’s a pathway the brain doesn’t have a pre-existing pathway for. We like the safety of existing pathways. Some more than others based on personality characteristics.
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