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Orwell once warned about the “gramophone mind”—people who just play whatever record is shoved into their head. Today, we call them NPCs (Non-Player Characters).
Because our brains are "cognitive misers" looking to save calories, we’ve traded original thought for algorithmic shortcuts. We aren't just losing the Turing Test; we’re failing it on purpose to save time.
Here are the five flavors of human-shaped bots currently roaming the internet:
The NPC Field Guide
1. The Conformist
The Strategy: If it’s on the first page of Google or Wikipedia, it’s holy. They outsource their soul to a "consensus" that is often just three sleep-deprived academics and a PR firm in a trench coat. They think they’re following "The Science," but they’re actually just following a LinkedIn thread.
2. The Contrarian
The Strategy: Whatever the "Mainstream" says, the opposite must be true. The "Black Sheep" NPC. They think they’re Neo escaping the Matrix, but they’ve just swapped one pre-recorded tape for another. If the news said "Oxygen is good," they’d hold their breath just to spite the "globalists."
3. The Disciple
The Strategy: "What would [Elon/Trump/Tate] do?" Cognitive cosplay. They’ve turned a billionaire or a fitness influencer into an external hard drive for their own personality. It’s "Follow the Leader," but with higher stakes and worse tweets.
4. The Tribalist
The Strategy: My team = Good. Your team = Literal Voldemort. They’ve turned reality into a high-stakes sports match where the rules are made up and the facts don’t matter. They don't want the truth; they just want to see the "Outgroup" cry on camera.
5. The Averager
The Strategy: The middle ground is always the safest place to park. The "lukewarm water" of people. They think standing in the middle of the road makes them a genius, forgetting that’s where you get hit by buses from both directions. They’re too "nuanced" to have a pulse.
How to Uninstall the NPC Software
The real problem isn’t that we have bad opinions; it’s that we think we need to have all of them. To stop being a bot, you need to "tier" your brain:
Tertiary Issues: (99% of things) Admit you don't know. If it doesn't affect your life, let the record skip. Silence is your "Unsubscribe" button from the bot-war.
Secondary Issues: (Things that matter a bit) Adversarial Learning. Don't just read your favorite echo chamber. Listen to two people who hate each other argue, then pick the one who sounds less like a maniac.
Primary Issues: (Your actual life/values) Go Deep. Use the time you saved by not arguing about celebrity drama to actually learn some Torah!
1. The Majority Trap (The Conformist)
The Torah contains a fascinating and paradoxical verse regarding the majority:
"You shall not follow a majority to do evil" (Exodus 23:2).
While Jewish law (Halakhah) generally rules by the majority, the Torah warns that quantity does not equal quality. The Talmud clarifies that if you see a majority heading toward a moral or intellectual "evil," you are strictly forbidden from joining them just to fit in. This is the biblical "Anti-NPC" clause: your conscience is not a democracy.
2. Distance vs. "Don't Lie" (The Disciple/Tribalist)
The Torah usually uses the word "Do not" for commandments (e.g., "Do not steal"). However, regarding truth, it uses much stronger language:
"Distance yourself from a word of falsehood" (Exodus 23:7).
The Sages explain that it’s not enough to simply not "tell a lie." You must distance yourself from the entire environment of falsehood.
The Lesson: Being a "Disciple" or a "Tribalist" often involves technically staying within the lines while ignoring the "smell" of a lie. The Torah commands us to back away from the entire echo chamber.
3. "I Do Not Know" (The Cure for the NPC)
The text mentions that saying "I don't know" is the ultimate human act. This is a core value in the Talmud:
Rashi, the greatest commentator in history, wrote the word "V'aini yodea" ("And I do not know") in his commentaries over 100 times.
The Talmud teaches: "Teach your tongue to say, 'I do not know,' lest you be entangled in a lie" (Berakhot 4a).
The Lesson: If even the greatest minds in history could admit ignorance, a 21st-century netizen has no excuse for having a "scripted" opinion on every geopolitical event.
4. Constructive Disagreement (The Averager)
The "Averager" tries to stay in the middle to avoid conflict. Jewish tradition, however, praises Mahloket l'shem Shamayim (Dispute for the sake of Heaven).
The classic example is Hillel vs. Shammai. They didn't "average" their opinions; they held radically different views but remained friends.
The Lesson: Truth isn't found by splitting the difference (The Averager); it’s found by engaging deeply with opposing views until the "Seal of God" (which the Talmud says is Truth) emerges.
5. Abraham: The First "Anti-NPC"
The Midrash describes Abraham as Ha-Ivri (The Hebrew), which literally means "The one who stands on the other side."
At a time when the entire world was "NPC-ing" into idol worship, Abraham stood alone on the other side of the river. He didn't become a "Contrarian" to be edgy; he sought a primary truth that the "Conformists" of his time were ignoring.
The Cure: The most human thing you can say is "I don't have enough information to form an opinion on that." It’s the one thing a bot is programmed never to say.
