NPCs and Infinity Problems

"Category: Sidequest"

I just recently had an "Aha" moment. Well, two ... actually. Three then ... to be precise. Either one of those would be something - for me at least - worth writing about. Certainly as a matter of time that might as well pass. You then might find me, on and off, aside from starting a topic like this, to note that I'm not quite sure what to make of it - or what the point might be. Or maybe that it seems too little on its own.
Sometimes there then is an urge to write or something - or, in a really abstract sense, some guiding Light; A topic that manifests via some understanding - first vague perhaps, but eventually it grows until something clicks. Sometimes that also fades - to re-appear at some later point in time. Letting go - usually isn't a bad idea - I think. That is, until letting go is more of a fight against something that persists. Well - these are the nuances of one's journey I suppose.

The guiding Light for this is captured in the headline as "Infinity Problems". Basically a concern I'd regard as an iteration on previous concerns. But as I made my way through the day, I started to wonder. It turns out, it isn't really ... much of a topic, as it is an attempt to label something. And so it eventually clicked when thinking of it in terms of NPCs.

But this whole introduction then, it ... follows a bit of a separate concern of mine. It's like ... "what's the point?". I wonder, for instance, how many things I've written about that I wouldn't really remember having written about. Or so, how anyone might come to properly care about any of it. It certainly has the likeness of a vain endeavor. Details and Trivia and ... what not. There's like ... no real place for it.
So, aside of the big and important matters - there are just these ... things ... so far removed from anything one, were I to be asked at least, should care about. And so I came around to think of it as snow. Or a snowflake. Like a single coin dropped into an empty bottle - and well, one day it might fill up to actually be worth something.


Now, Infinity Problems are at first, in effect, errors of the Mind lost in the Mangle. So, something that would occur quite frequently. Errors of the Mind, that are as well failures of Logic - and that is: Logic itself - not that of the individual - though certainly dependent on the individual's insight.

It's like ... thinking yourself into a corner. Maybe overthinking something to the n-th degree, or obsessing over an answer that could not possibly reached. Not at least by running down the ever same corridors.

The solution, for what I cared about, is Trust. There are a lot of Infinity Problems that emerge and disappear round about Trust. And thereby ... Trust is in and of itself a kind of Infinity Problem.

So is there that. That, which I at this point would ... leave you with. It is as it is - and at the end of the day, most of it would be matters of your very own existence. Nothing I could significantly help you out with. I suppose, otherwise this were like ... part of the main Quest - so-to-speak.


This whole topic does receive a bit of a Spin when thinking of it in terms of NPCs. Or humans that we would label as such. Or, humans that we could label as such, based on their relationship with this matter.

Let me explain: NPC - or Non Playable Character - is a term used for Characters, non playable ones, that appear in Videogames. These could be set-pieces like generic "please help" figures in some Hero adventure, Story figures or Enemies. Applied to humans, it is to argue, that some people exhibit NPC-like behavior. Those would be standard, mostly shallow, cookie-cutter responses - or a very limited dialog tree, possibly informed by very stereotypical traits and such.
I could be described as an NPC, supposing that I like to sit in front of my Computer and shut everything else out as much as I can. At least if you're not very interesting to me - let's say - and whatever your concerns were wouldn't fit into my lifetime budget.
This last point can further be aggravated, by, you being onto something that's basically just gibberish to me. We might have heated discussions over it - and you might find me to be an immovable object. Maybe because you're not ready to hear what I'm saying.

So, we all have the potential to be an NPC in someone else's life. Of one kind or another.

The deeper implications however, for my ... possibly paranoia riddled mind, lend themselves to exploitation. And this takes us to the Infinity Problem related case of NPC's in it's maybe purest form. Here the individual picks an Infinity Problem - as something that is an unsolvable problem by design, or held as such on purpose - and anchors their behavior to it; Eventually in defense while following some hidden agenda.


Somewhat related to that is this third Aha. I noticed earlier, while some thoughts were running through my mind, that something was ... like ... carrying a conclusion for me. One that I wouldn't have made - though for the time being it was as though I could or would have. And in that sense even did. And it took a little bit of effort to work my way back and towards my own.

Maybe think of it as a taunt. Or as a gap in attentiveness. Perhaps because the issue at hand isn't all that important to you, or it's something you wouldn't ordinarily think about. You might try to mount an opinion - and then something jumps in to make it for you.

I suppose this isn't really helpful. And in the heat of the moment or some random social interaction - anyone could be victim or perpetrator of such. We'd brush it off - as we would soon forget that any of it happened anyway - and what matters most is what we're individually most concerned about anyway. But this is also where mental fortitude comes into play.

Mental Fortitude, in this sense, could be described as: "The amount of Neurons that support a given interest" - which could come in form of a wealth of knowledge and expertise, good physical or environmental awareness - so, pretty much anything that the mind could contribute to any given concern. And it is by this fortitude, that we're capable of discerning how well something gels with our current understanding. If we have low fortitude, well, there is a whole lot of nonsense that may gel with someone's understanding. As a greater fortitude has a higher capacity of revealing bullshit. Whether that now be in the common or the individual sense.


And so we loop back around. All of these items are somewhat connected. With low mental fortitude we are at greater risk of acting like NPC's in someone else's game - as we're also more prone to getting stuck in Infinity Problems that may even have very simple solutions.


And that's that.