If there are multiple timeliness, have you considered how many people are "real" or NPCs?

Provocative. Profound.

If a higher power knows our hearts and every choice we'll ever make, how do you know if anyone is really real?

Their spirit and soul could be somewhere else while their flesh is on autopilot NPC mode living life according to how they would normally live with utter perfection.

You can't prove anyone else is real, just sense they are.

My senses tell me... well... forget it.