# How many real people are there? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 12, 2001, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602 "2001-03-12T02:40:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/41 "2001-03-12T22:09:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mrvisible \* > Anyhow, Robert Heinlein wrote a great short story on this very theme. It’s called “They”. \ That was the violin reference. The protagonist in “They” played the violin while he was institutionalized–he could almost remember himself when he played. \Did you perhaps travel in elephants, **mrvisible**?\ **Scylla** , I more-or-less said that they’re all real. I just couched very vaguely. ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/42 "2001-03-12T22:21:27Z")
Balance: Almost, but I didn’'t pay attention since your not real 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/43 "2001-03-12T22:52:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by magdalene \* > People are real. All those cardboard cut-outs, the supporting players in your life, hum with life, with passions, with regrets, with pain, with humiliations, with dreams. They are real. See it. Those last two words are it right there. See it. Name it, and give it life. Stamp on the rock, refute it thus. Scylla’s and magdalene’s posts are not opposed, they’re complementary. Every time you behold it, you create the world, and the people in it. Some people and places, as Scylla mentioned, become infused with enough life that they exist outside your gaze, as well; even become part of you. Solipsism and consensus-reality are both useful, and need not be mutually exclusive. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/44 "2001-03-12T22:58:52Z")
Don’t make me send in the groundhogs, Scylla. Betcha believe in _those_ little buggers, don’t you? ---
**Author:** ![magdalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@magdalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magdalene)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2001, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/45 "2001-03-12T23:41:21Z")
hahaha…There is no fooling **MEBuckner**! **Scylla** , to be brutally honest, I’ve had that same feeling of unreality (sometimes I’m not real, sometimes they are not real) you describe. Then someone breaks out of the unreality and touches you and convinces you that you are both real - and that’s where conversation, love, friendship, and every good thing about life beings. But yeah, sometimes you look at the drones around you and wonder if they have any inner life whatsoever- surely it can’t be as rich and satisfying and complicated as your inner life, right? But it is. We ARE all beautiful and unique snowflakes. 😃 (Sob…hold me…) ---
**Author:** ![SpinneZiege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9e8a1a/32.png) [@SpinneZiege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpinneZiege)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/46 "2001-03-13T01:35:44Z")
**magdalene** , you are my new favorite poster. Not just because that was a really well written, but that I think it profoundly changed my whole outlook on life. _hugz_ ---
**Author:** ![Scylla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a5b964/32.png) [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/47 "2001-03-13T02:26:44Z")
Oh great! I do all the work. write that long ass OP, all leading up to something, and Maggie gets all the credit. She’s the hero, not me. **AND SHE’S NOT EVEN REAL!!!** I guess I’ll just go talk to my rock. I **was** gonna tell you what it said, but now I’m not. So there! and here’s a fuckin smilie for you in case you don’t get it 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/48 "2001-03-13T02:45:13Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by MEBuckner \* > **Well, magdalene’s post _was_ very eloquent. She can’t possibly know all of those things about those people. In other words, most (all?) of those heartbreaking, humanizing details of other people’s lives–passions, regrets, pains, humiliations, dreams–about which she so movingly wrote were…Fictional.** I for one believe **Magdalene** absolutely. It doesn’t matter AT ALL if it’s brilliantly composed fiction, or slices of real people’s lives that she’s articulated with such skill. After all, what if…I knew that… 1. The nice mom who is the softball coach has a mother who is such a severe alcoholic that she collapses naked and cuts her foot open and lays face down for over 24 hours in the bathroom doorway while her Alzheimer’s-ridden father is incapable of helping. 2. His girlfriend really seemed to be handling the whole break-up and move-out day so well, until he went for more boxes and she wrote a note on loose-leaf paper and ingested all the powerful painkillers he’d been using a few months before. 3. His life was such a lovely dream come true. Successful business, huge home, loving wife. However, in his paranoid mind, she was out to screw him over. And so he took her hostage with a shotgun. 4. Of course that lovely facility up the hill from the country club is SUCH a great source of support and comfort for it’s severely mentally and physically disabled residents. Or, was until an employee decided to masturbate into the mouth of one of the female residents one night, while tugging at her breasts. Which part of real life doesn’t make sense? It’s irrelevant whether or not what Magdalene wrote is in fact, fact. It’s ONLY relevant that she wrote it with a voice of truth and conviction. After all, does it matter if what I wrote was true or not? It’s also written with absolute conviction, and in a thread that started with the world populated by shadows and cardboard cut-outs, this kind of vivid imagery does us all a service, not a disservice. Irrespective of the veracity of the particulars. Cartoonverse ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/49 "2001-03-13T06:19:34Z")
**Scylla** , there are really only two of us, I just type really really fast and don’t sleep, so I can act like I am the Teeming Millions. There is no Teeming Millions, there is just Teeming Me, and I don’t really Teem all that much anymore. There, I said it! Phew, what a load off my shoulders, keeping up this facade has been hell on my fingers! So, whatta ya say we call it a universe and go get a beer? UncleBill [sub](a.k.a. **Cartooniverse, SpinneZiege, Hi Opal!, magdalene, Balance, Lux Fiat, MEBuckner, mrvisible, Lamia, xizor, that\_darn\_cat, jr8, slortar, Johnny L.A, Humble Servant, matt\_mcl, SexyWriter, TheNerd, masonite, Ayesha, Barbarian, carnivorousplant, Simetra, Lost, SpinneZiege, Mercutio, Zenster, GilaB, Nocturne, aseymayo, Arden Ranger, Vince the Intangible, inor, and sometimes Rasa)**[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/50 "2001-03-13T09:25:27Z")
If uncle bill is really me, then how come he’s not paying my rent? ---
**Author:** ![Lux\_Fiat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bc79bd/32.png) [@Lux\_Fiat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lux_Fiat)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/51 "2001-03-13T09:57:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cartooniverse \* > After all, does it matter if what I wrote was true or not? It’s also written with absolute conviction, and in a thread that started with the world populated by shadows and cardboard cut-outs, this kind of vivid imagery does us all a service, not a disservice. Irrespective of the veracity of the particulars. A service? How? ---
**Author:** ![eirroc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f1d935/32.png) [@eirroc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eirroc)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/52 "2001-03-13T10:41:08Z")
When I was younger I used to think that the life I was living was actually a dream that I might wake up from any minute. In the other “reality” it was about the 18th century, and I was ill and in a coma and when I woke up the people around me were going to tell me it was all a dream, and this scared the hell out of me because I didnt want to wake up wearing that frilly long dress with the big hoops in it! Make of **that** what you wish. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/53 "2001-03-13T14:06:18Z")
Main unit to Sub-Section J: Subject “BARBARIAN” has stumbled upon the truth. Dispatch dispoal team. End transmission. ---
**Author:** ![Evnglion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f04885/32.png) [@Evnglion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evnglion)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/54 "2001-03-13T14:13:31Z")
When I was much younger, I had a very hard time grasping the fact that there are only 2 sexes. I thought there always just HAD to be something other thatn a boy or girl. Hemaphrodites do NOT count. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/55 "2001-03-13T14:52:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Evnglion \* > \*\*When I was much younger, I had a very hard time grasping the fact that there are only 2 sexes. I thought there always just HAD to be something other thatn a boy or girl. Hemaphrodites do NOT count. \*\* [Rodney Dangerfield]I’ve got three kids, one of each[/Rodney Dangerfield] ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/56 "2001-03-13T15:23:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Scylla \* > **Oh great! I do all the work. write that long ass OP, all leading up to something, and Maggie gets all the credit. She’s the hero, not me.** I know you’re just joshin’ **Scylla** , but remember that it usually takes an inspired OP to get an inspired response. Or not. Ignoring or misunderstanding insights is a tradition too–we’re just making you a REAL artist by making you suffer for your art. You wrote a poetic, allusional OP–I personally would have been disappointed in a mere pedestrian realist answer (of course all people are real)–I like the poetical, allusional responses the best. We all toss our bread upon the waters; sometimes the most tangential and unexpected responses are the most interesting. Say “hi” to your rock for me.🙂 ---
**Author:** ![UncleBill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/d26b3c/32.png) [@UncleBill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBill)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/57 "2001-03-13T15:56:07Z")
**Barbarian,** I’m NOT paying your rent because I’m paying mine, and you are not really you, you are only me. That being said, I AM paying your rent because you are not really you, you are me, and I pay MY rent. So stop paying, the person you send the checks to is not themself, they are me, too. Oh, wait, scratch that. Keep sending the checks, only write them payable to UncleBill so when I take it to myself at the bank, I can show myself my real ID, instead of the ID with your “landlord” on it. Wait, if **Barbarian** is me, and the secret is out, why am I still writing this? Oh yeah, to get **Barbarian** (a.k.a. **UncleBill** ) to keep send me my checks. ::stands by to watch **Barbarian’s** brain explode:: ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/58 "2001-03-13T18:45:35Z")
Gee, thanks, UncleBill. Now we’re _all_ [gonna get banned](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=63057). ---
**Author:** ![Milossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Milossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milossarian)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/59 "2001-03-13T20:15:52Z")
I guess I pretty much always feel real; however, I occasionally feel like I am in “Groundhog Day,” reliving the same day, over and over. Especially when work is particularly mundane, and there’s not a lot else going on. I occasionally will have _deja vu_-like moments where it seems everyone’s actions are being taken as a result of my presence. Like the guy on TV is waiting for me to pay attention to talk. Or the car in that driveway pulled out on cue because I showed up. Think Jim Carrey in “The Truman Show.” Other occasional “high thoughts” include the idea posited by late comedian Bill Hicks: That we are all one consciousness, experiencing itself subjectively. That little voice in your head that you call your soul/consciousness/thoughts and the one in my head are _one and the same thing_, experienced only slightly differently by the portion of it encapsulated in your particular body, or “meat taxi.” Then I picture Pinto in “Animal House” saying to the professor earnestly, “Could I buy some pot from you?” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Pinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dr.Pinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Pinky)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2001, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602/60 "2001-03-13T20:48:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Barbarian \* > **I have it on good authority that there are only 500 real people in the world. 'Twas writer Terry Pratchett who told me this during an interview…** That’s odd; independently I came up with the figure of 512. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-real-people-are-there/57602.md?page=4)