their entire identity is built around what they believe in. In fact, their identity is what they believe in.
Indeed, they are literally a collection of someone else's thoughts and ideas; a wholly synthetic mind. I've read on some norm forums such as reddit for instance where they have discussed this at length. Many were unaware that such a thing as mental imagery even existed, relegating it to euphemism when they heard it. One user discussed their inability and claimed to have spent months trying to conjure its ability, and succeeding in doing so. The ignorance to and curiosity of the subject alone is pause enough for me to believe that it may be possible for them.
The alternative is to give up and live amongst a mass of thoughtless machines that would kill you all the same as an equal.
I reject giving up.
I'm all for making information available to anyone who has the ability and initiative to consume it. But if you need to routinely hand feed a creature, in order for it to survive, then perhaps it doesn't deserve to.
You mentioned this one user's curiosity... This makes me wonder whether this was just someone who was born with the vision, but who had let it atrophy due to growing up in an environment that is so saturated with "programming", and so critical and dismissive of thought. NPCs generally lack curiosity. Their reaction to the new and unexplained - let alone the contrary or controversial - tends to be a mix of fear, disdain and anxiety. Not excitement or interest. It makes them deeply uncomfortable and they desperately try to get back to whatever feels safe and known. The only new ideas they tend to accept are those which have been pre-digested and pre-approved, hand-delivered in bite-sized pieces via established channels.
It's difficult to imagine how someone with a strong natural sense of curiosity would even wind up as an NPC to begin with. You'd think they would discover these things on their own, if they are indeed discoverable and not inborn.
Another alternative would be to accept this is how they are, or at least that manipulating them in this way is far more effective than attempting to reason with them, and therefore proceed to take advantage of them in a more benign and productive way than their current masters.
If our enemies can program them, so can we.
if you need to routinely hand feed a creature, in order for it to survive, then perhaps it doesn't deserve to.
That poor creature has never even eaten... I don't want to live in that world, and I have the ability to try and change it. What kind of person would I be if I didn't?
Yes, it can atrophy with lack of use, or reliance upon routine patterns and ideas. The point being is that it can be gone and exercised to return.
If our enemies can program them, so can we.
So can they program them back, and they already own all the tools. However, an independent mind cannot be programmed.
My question to you is: Do you believe that there are more 'NPCs' today than in the past? If so, then we can surmise that it is likely that they can be converted.
As mentioned, I'm all for making the information available in any case. But any active proselytizing I would focus on the young.
My question to you is: Do you believe that there are more 'NPCs' today than in the past? If so, then we can surmise that it is likely that they can be converted.
Or something killed many of the best minds off. Or a lack of selection against NPC traits prevented natural culling. Or an environment that favors NPCs allowed their numbers to swell. Or an environment that punishes and suppresses independent thinking selected against non-NPCs. Or all of the above.
I don't doubt that a healthy human mind can be abused and shackled until it becomes crippled and limited. You can certainly help such a mind grow back to its full potential. But I also think that naturally limited NPC minds exist, and are very common, and I doubt that they can be boosted beyond those limitations.
I won't discourage the attempt though. I've certainly tried. Perhaps you'll have more luck than I have had.
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