Simulated existential crisis in the form of a video game. Here are timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction - Tryolabs: tryolabs.com/lex - Vincero: vincerowatches.com/lex 0:48 - Round 1 - The Matrix 8:12 - Round 2 - Reincarnation 9:58 - Round 3 - Winning 12:39 - Round 4 - Adventure line 16:30 - Round 5 - Confusion 19:58 - Round 6 - Mind control 35:09 - Round 7 - A dream within a dream 42:28 - Round 8 - Ego death 47:49 - Death becomes meaningless
Hey Lex! love your stuff man. hey if you like this game i got one you may REALLY trip out on. called 'Only If' on Steam. THE trippest game i have ever played. I recommend to anyone and everyone reading this. game on!
Hi Lex, As a teen who recently became an adult, I've really enjoyed discovering you and your content through Joe Rogan's podcast. I'm now in college, and more than ever, I've felt as though this period in my life is defined by chaotic soul searching and unrelenting identity crises. Personally, I've had a rough past 2020 with regards to mental health and soul searching, but every now and then when I'm in a rut, I ask myself, "What would Lex do?" From the answer to that question, I'm able to find more confidence in myself and remember to embrace life's chaos. I look up to you as a role model, and from one humble existence to another, I appreciate you. Thanks for helping me through some tough times. Happy New Year!
I loved the irony that his displaying of being a philosophical intellectual shallowed the experience of what he was doing because he was preforming for the audience more than he was preforming his relationship between stanley and himself I think he only had a few authentic moments in the vid
@@nickmagrick7702 yeah, it would be pointless to expect otherwise by the nature of the yt / acting (literally) in front of a Million+ ppl. I mean it's possible but... but that path is a very difficult one., not sure how many managed to take that. (..the left or right? lol ;) Life is about these exciting/beautiful challenges probably at every level (?) ... some (ehm, many..) we (humanity) constantly fail at. Than we say. "Yolo or.. Whatever". And that's it. Job done. This was a worthy walkthrough tho. Distracted/disturbed me enough..
@@UnbelievablyGauche This is the only Lex video I’ve ever seen but if you don’t like his style of commentating then watch a different Stanley Parable video lol
@@sandiego764 he did more than a few things that were bothering me Me 58 times: "DAMN IT YOU'RE PLAYING THE GAME WRONG! NO... NO STAY IN THE DAMN CLOSET"
the "go outside" achievement is not to play this game for 5 years. the existence of this achievement makes you load up the game after 5 years just go get it. a clever way to revisit it.
getting the player to come back isn't the point of the achievement, watch this vid "The Philosophy of The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide - Wisecrack Edition"
That's why the media exist even though we all know its fake. That's why every remake from your childhood will fail to keel you wanting and hoping but not getting a result you like. Psychologically the feeling of pain leaving the womb is part of the structure of our world now at every stage. The end goal is the great reset. No one owns anything apart from the elite pedos who rent it back to us as slavery
@@nathanquattrochi1299 not only would that make great conversation, Felix is fairly intelligent and well-spoken. He's dabbled in philosophy a fair amount.
When you start treating your entire life as a single object, by extension it must be present to someone who is not participating in it. So who is this entire life being presented to?
@@Mevlinous Well this is the foundation of simulation theory but I personally like to think that life is not a single object and rather we are all connected by some unkown, unmeasurable force which also binds us. I like to think that this explains both love and animosity between people because we are constantly noticing things we like/hate about ourselves while observing other people. It might be a bit "woo" but I don't have all the answers and am convinced of nothing, like I said this is just what I like to think because so much of our experience of reality is unknown.
As someone who works in an office and that presses buttons all day, this “game” is truly a masterpiece. You should do another video or two in order to see the whole thing. You have no idea what you’ve missed. :)
The Talos Principle next please. I think playing as a robot trying to prove it's human and having philosophical debates with another AI would be dope. (Lex, if you'r reading, I don't mean you, lol)
Man, I'm in tears of joy watching this. I can't believe I missed this. I wish more of this type of content was on the table, although I'm fully aware Lex is busier than that.
@@nekrokulter Well, yes and no. No, because the game restarts, and just like it was done in Spec Ops The Line, the only way to beat the game, is to actually never play it (or to follow the narrator, take the escape rout and just before crash, hit the escape and turn off the game), or turn it off and move on with your life towards whatever; as the female narrator said, Stanley was dead from the beginning, and so we are. Yes, because it's an old concept actually. Back in ancient times there was a voice of logos speaking to people, which was thought to be - at that times - a voice of god, telling people what to do and not do, possibly leading to whatever best fullfillment of their lives (which kind of negates the free will concept and bows to determinism). It is thought that the voice of logos was incorporated by the mind and became what we know now as consciance, the inner voice that appear sometimes and tells you that you probably shouldn't be doing something, or should be doing something else now, and which is - paradoxicaly - right at great many times, at least in a relatively healthy developed person. I.E: socrates was known for always listening to that voice, up to a point where during his prosecution he had a chance to defend himself and the voice told him that he shouldn't. So he shut up and reconsidered, decided that he's old enough and lived his life, and it's a chance for him to go on his own terms, before the life of an old man takes him down insted. So he shut up and went on with being executed. So what does that have to do with Stanley's Parable? Well, it's even somewhere in the game, when narrator tells you about that rebel part, where no matter how good you have it it's never enough, and the ones inner will to rebel is always our own missfortune which we deny up untill the point of no return and sometimes even beyond that. Like that old saying The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Cause no matter what you do, you really can't do good - becasue you don't know what's good and what's not. Because your view of what's good might be wrong to others and even to yourself because you didn't took some small detail - or even a large one - into consideration, simply because you couldn't, there's too many things related to everything around us at all moments that we simply can't make that decision. Sure you can say, helping someone in need is better than robbing them or something. But it's like with Hitler, WW2 might've not happened if an enemy soldier left him to die in the WW1. ISIS could've not raise to power if USA didn't invade iraq. There's just no way to know, and one thing that's sure about humans is we always think we don't deserve something or something is wrong when things are going well, cause we escape from comfort just as we do from suffering which just puts us in a constant loop. And theoretically, this is where buddha and zen comes in. Just be in the moment, go with the flow, don't resist, don't desire, just be and let things happen as they want. Well there's and ending for that in SP too - needless to say, you're most likely to start walking around instead of staying there or turning the game off ;) We like to break stuff, even ourselfes. Too bad Lex didn't played enough to try to mess with game mechanics, wonder what would he do in the telephone room or with platform :) but he's an accomplished man, not a gamer, he did better than me and moved with his life instead of trying to find everything this game offers :D (and in a way found exactly everything it offers - the existencial crisis and that you shouldn't play the game ;)
@@coconutfpv Amazing. But I had a question. If we can never know what is good, what do we do? How do we live knowing that what we do can cause so many people harm? Is the only way out to not do anything? Is dying the only solution? The only way out?
@@pushpitsrivastava5796 1) I'm sorry i speak about religions much if perhaps it bothers you in any way, thing is it's not about the religions but about the ideas that they speak of. The answer hinduism, buddhism/taoism and zen offers to that is to stop the clinging to everything (which is a different thing than don't care about anything and get rid of all emotions) and learn to make your mind still and let things be as they want to be (which is a common thing in most religions around the world actually (like jesus forgiving them all them sins, or allah - the merciful and compassionate; there's basically no religion without that motive, no matter how people manage to pick them apart and twist the story to fit their agendas). I.E: if you go to a store and you wait in line, and there's like that one angry lady that's always making scenes and rages all around "cause why the fu* she have to wait in line (with two people in front of her which would take like two minutes instead of 4 with her raging all over the place) where's the second cashier?!", you can eighter: - act, and tell her off or calm her down, perhaps make her realise she's an as* and her raging ain't helping anything or speeding things up; - ignore her, but then you feel kinda down and frustrated, cause you could've done something and you didn't, or she shouldn't be like that, or you let yourself down cause you could act but you didn't, and you let other people down for the same reason, and other let you down cause they didn't act as well, and the whole thing is just a giant mess, and why do people actually act shi*y as there's no point in that and she totally should be grateful for (there's more options obviously but the point is IF you think about it really deeply, there's sort of no good solution, cause whatever you do is by being driven by one or the other selfish reasons (was it really needed? do you needed to act out? why do you tell people how they should live and act? how do YOU know to live and act and why you assume you got it right or more right than anybody else? or the ways you acted it out were over the top, your words, your tone of voice, etc.) Whatever you'll do, it will resonate within you, wether it is by you kinda being an as* while you really didn't need to, by you feeling let down by your own action and not taking action while something could be done, or by her behaviour like a pretentious as*, you'll go on by your day but you'll feel like it's a little bit (or maybe a significantly) worse day than it was before that event. So you see what actually happens is you cling to the feelings, eighter anger or frustration or perhaps a joy cause you've acted while you needed (you think) to and you totally bossed her, good job you... but was it really necessary? you're sure? Cause odds are highly likely that you pat yourself on the back for being the good person cause you've brought somebody else down, which is hardly a humane and glorious thing to do. This doesn't mean they did not deserve it, keep that in mind. The whole thing of how we should and shouldn't act as an individual vs local society vs global society, all the formalities and norms, behaviours and little laws and rituals, wether we should glorify the unit or aim at the good for entire race and beings is a whole different question (personally i think we should aim at bigger goals, treat each other best way we can and aim at being a better humans both to others and ourselves at possibly all times, not that it's easy tho, quite contrary, a conscious life is a walk on thorns, but at least you're doing something to perhaps make this mess a tiny bit better by setting an example or inspiration of that thing can be done better) which is also the point at which to some extent the figure of christ steps in, dude took a serious shi*, up to a point of his own death and still refused to oppose, he figuratively and literally turned the other cheek (as voilence breeds violence) and begged forgiveness for his oppressors. If you think about it, there's really no other thing to do, than try to maybe not necessairly make things better, but at the very least not make them worse.
I find it fun to always see people's accomplishments or even progress, whether it be contributing to a game or commenting on it and loving it. It is a good experience. A lot of things I wish I was able to do and fantasize about being good at it. It is good other people can do it.
Seconded! Soma is amazing, and horrifying at the same time. One of the only games I know that has a simultaneous bad/good ending. But I would also add questions of identity as a core concept in it.
LEX PLEASE KEEP PLAYING - THERE'S SO MUCH MORE, AND IT GET'S SOOOOOO WEIRD. WE NEED YOU TO FINISH IT. PLEASE LEX. DO IT FOR THE CHILDREN LEX. THINK OF THE CHILDREN.
I felt deep struggle in his voice when he said: “wake up lex”. Hey, lex, everything will be ok, it’s all just a part of the experience, pain will go, just keep going. You are the best.
Lex playing these very deep and meaningful games is something I never knew I needed. Really hope he'll check out Superliminal one day, similar vibes but more on the topic of dreams and perspective. One of my all time favourites :)
I would love to see you try the second part of Stanley Parable as well. There's no better person to have played this game to fully appreciate the depth of the story. For that, i thank you!
I've mostly listened to you through podcasts and it is such a genuine heart warming feeling to see you amused and laugh in a light hearted video about playing existential crisis
When presented with a free will scenario, Lex's thoughts predictably floated towards Sam Harris. Wishing to prove him wrong he chose the option, which supposedly showed he has free will, but in reality all that was predetermined.
The whole confusion ending is literally about the illusion of choice. You didnt look back to see, but that room where you walk in circles and the narrator eventually tells you which door to go through, if you turn around, both doors go to the same room. Well tbh, the whole game is about it. Its a game about choices, and yet every choice is scripted. The "canon" ending is the freedom ending, with the MIND CONTROL facility.
(Spoilers) The way to get the freedom ending is to do exactly what the narrator tells you to do. Is this just an illusion of freedom? Or maybe eating the blue pill is the only way to freedom, when you actually stop resisting you free yourself of your self-generated suffering.
@@Basaltq Many people think they can subvert the system and find a shortcut to happiness or fulfillment. Maybe that narrator voice was his conscience guiding him on the right path. Sometimes the obvious way is the right way.
Nearly two years later, still a great video! I did find myself yelling at the screen for two things - One, you never did the obvious playthrough of complete compliance. You would have seen the Freedom Ending. Second, the Lady Narrator said to hit escape and click Quit. You skipped the Quit part. She was not wrong. Hopefully you come back to the game eventually and try out some of the other endings. Try some other things.
Dude has the deepest conversations known to man with some of the worlds most passionate people and throws in a lets play every month or so. What a genuine guy.
I did not expect this... Wow... I only wanted to watch couple of minutes that turned into watching the whole video. Your input about aspects of life were incredibly interesting. You're really awesome Lex and VERY intelligent! Thank you.
After a rough day yesterday I am recommended Lex playing The Stanley Parable, and now all is right with the world. Wonderful and fun video. Please play more video games when you get a chance. :)
I have been enjoying watching players of this game and observing their choices and why - great research for the novel I am writing. I have seen 1 person find the Freedom Ending and she did what the narrator told her to do. Interesting. A thing to consider: she found the destination but in the process she had no journey.
Definitely not the kind of content I would expect considering the rest of your channel, and the game. This is my first video of yours, and you had me sucked in immediately. Soft spoken, intelligent. Also you have a nice voice. Perfect for this game, but this game doesnt get players that analyze it the way you have. Edit: Also, looking at all the comments and the upload date, looks like last night was when youtube decided to recommend this video to everybody.
Lex’s commentary is out of this world.. I genuinely learnt something from this video, I don’t play video games anymore but when I used to I played them with no thoughts whatsoever, my brain was just an empty void absorbing whatever was on the screen… And then I saw Alex play and he is thinking more deeply about the game than I do about my own day to day life…… This has actually been somewhat of a revelation for me.. Thanks Alex.
“When walking around a lot in a space of ideas and getting nowhere, but in this process of suffering you arrive in at place of wisdom. Woah, this is cool.” -Lex Fridman-
You should also check out The Beginners Guide. Its a game by the same dev, talking about, well, game development. Art. The struggle of vision. The way artists give up. Etc. Also, play this game more and again. Theres still so much for you to uncover, that is thought provoking.
@@cesarsanchezgutierrez3064 Mine sounds like a big fat cat scratching on the door trying to get out. You can estimate its weight by the heavy breathing.
Lex is so young but seems so wise at the same time. I love the deep comments and metaphors he gives about life when compared to the game. Opens my eyes a bit. Thanks Lex.
There is a freedom ending in the game, and you were very close to it, it's activated when you turn the mind control facility off, instead of turning it on again which activates the nuclear bomb ending. Of course regardless of which ending you activate you'll restart in Stanley's office anyway. The lady narrator had a point though, she was actually telling you the truth. She told you to "push escape, and then quit" as in "quit to desktop". The only way to win the game.
The freedom ending exists, but it is an illusion. The onion has many layers. You are Stanley's free will, trapped within Stanley, like our own minds are tethered to our bodies. Is there anywhere else for a mind to go? Cage/vessel/vehicle.. It's all the same. Our constraints define us. Our will pushes the boundaries. That is freedom. Stanley wasn't dreaming until you turned off the game.
This is the best play through of anything I’ve ever watched. The way you dance with your mind about the power of choice despite the limits having choices places on us.
there IS a freedom ending, but as in reality, reaching freedom is the most difficult path. there's also an extended version of this game by now, the "ultra deluxe" version
I am so impressed by this guy. Started watching him few years ago when he had tens of thousands of followers not millions. I'm a software engineer and I like AI so it just fit, but watching the whole thing morph into what it has and seeing Lex grow into this sensation is pretty amazing. I have a lot of love and respect, as well admiration for him. He seems like he could be the best of friends...if only I knew him that way:)
