The Simulation Hypothesis and Ghosts.

I think there might be a real scientific case to answer regarding an explanation for ghosts. However, IMHO ghosts have nothing to do with human spirits and evidence of an afterlife. Rather, all can be explained by postulating that we live in, and are the product of a simulated universe.

The anomaly here is that you’ve had hundreds of thousands, probably even millions, of observations of ghosts or ghostly manifestations since recorded history started being, well, recorded. Sightings of apparitions or specters or spirits, whatever, have been made and reported from every possible type of person from every possible walk of life. They can’t all be mistaken. The fly in the ointment is that all of this is without there being the slightest shred of physical, chemical or biological theory that can back up the sightings. There is just no way a deceased body can split in two and end up being half dead (the part that’s buried or cremated) and half animated (the ghost), yet the ghost, since it is animated, it can been seen and heard and interact with the surrounding environment after all, must be composed of matter and energy which presumable had to have been part and parcel of the original body to start with. As such the ghost needs to feed to replenish that matter and expended energy and no doubt perform related bodily functions. No physics or chemistry or biology known to mankind can manipulate a deceased body’s matter and energy in such a way as to account for that body’s ghost.

So ghosts are all observation with no adequate theory to support them (unlike say the UFO extraterrestrial hypothesis which has solid theory to back up the possibility). There is no viable way of splitting a body up into two whole (matter and energy) parts at least one of which is viable (alive) and that applies equally to out-of-the-body experiences and near-death experiences. Another question: If that were possible, why stop at two (the ghost and the dead body; the out-of-the-body body and the body it came from; the near-death body and its animated counterpart) – why not a trio or thirty or three hundred ‘clones’?

Ghosts or phantoms or spirits or wraiths, call them what you will, are known from just about every culture and society from just about every historical era you care to identify. They tend to be identified with the ‘remains’ of people recently (or even not so recently) deceased. Now the question is, why aren’t sighted ghosts, or phantom hitchhikers, etc. naked? I mean it’s the person who died, not what they were wearing, so if a ghost is the essence of a former living person, and clothing doesn’t contribute to the nature of that essence, then ghosts should be seen naked!

You’re now dead and so part of you turns into a ghost. Alas, only part of you performs this magical transformational split since while others may see your ‘living’ ghost, they can also witness at the same time your very dead and decaying (or decayed) body. Something is screwy somewhere. Now the physical you seemingly kicks the bucket – you die. However, some part of that ‘you’ doesn’t kick the bucket, but instead retains animation. So, like Schrodinger’s Cat, you are both ‘alive’ and dead at the same time. Talk about a split personality!

Now presumably, at the time of death, you lose weight, that weight transferred into the newly animated part of you – your ghost. Your ghost must have weight since it is something physical, and being physical, is subject to the laws, principles and relationships of physics. Why is your ghost physical? It’s physical since if you can see it, if you can hear it, if it interacts with its (haunted house) environment, it must have substance. You can’t see or hear or interact with a nothing! A nothing of no material substance cannot interact with a material something, like matter and energy. Only matter and energy can interact with matter and energy.

Okay, so you are dead and your ghost is alive, or at least is associated with animation. How can this be logically explained? Does every part of your deceased body contribute to your ‘I am alive’ ghost, or only bits and pieces? Does your ghostly self have a ghostly stomach and lungs? Logic demands that since your ghost is physical, it needs to ward off the second law of thermodynamics – entropy – in order to retain its ghostliness. Your ghost gives off energy. That needs to be replenished. Translated, your ghost needs to eat, drink, breath, sleep, etc. otherwise your ghost will also kick the bucket since neither you, when you were fully alive as one unity, or you, as that dead/alive split personality, can give off energy endlessly without replacing it.

All up, the transition from a 100% alive you to an X% dead you coupled with a Y% alive or animated you (i.e. – your ghost) cannot be explained by any concept of physics, chemistry or biology that is currently on the books. The logical conclusion is that when you are dead, you’re dead: full stop.

When you kick-the-bucket, your body will release some energy - infrared (heat) energy as your body cools down to whatever temperature the surrounding environment is. Also, because you are slightly radioactive, your body's radioactivity will of course decay away and that too is a form of energy. However, in both cases the energy just dissipates into the environment and doesn't hold together in any sort of coherent form - ghostly or otherwise.

But two other points come to mind here. 1) Ghosts seem to slowly fade away over time. That is, ancient Greeks (and Romans and Egyptians and Chinese) saw their ghosts being of those (Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Chinese) who came slightly before them. Today, we don't see ghosts of the ancient Greeks (or Romans or Egyptians or Chinese, etc.) but only ghosts originating from within the past several hundreds of years. Going back even further, I haven't heard of any sightings of ghostly Neanderthals (though presumably Neanderthals no doubt saw ghosts of some their ancestors) or for that matter of ghostly Woolly Mammoths or Sabre Tooth Tigers or of dinosaurs or of trilobites. Whether dinosaurs saw ghosts of other dinosaurs that preceded them is an unanswerable question. So it would seem that ghosts aren't immortal or long-lasting. 2) Something which has puzzled many a ghostly sceptic is that ghosts apparently can walk / glide through walls, yet are never seen to fall through the floor!

So, for the hear-and-now, I'll go along with the reality of ghostly phenomena on the grounds of this being something common to all cultures and societies throughout all time periods of human recorded history. Anytime one has such a universal, serious explanations are required. However, until a more plausible scientific explanation comes along, I'll continue to postulate the Simulation Hypothesis.

Another problem is that not all ghosts are biological. There are reports of ghost trains, and phantom ships, and other things that have no connection with the biological world. Ghosts (and related like phantom trains) are just one of those six impossible things some people believe in before breakfast. However, I do provide an escape clause.

Escape Clause: Apart from special effects on make-believe TV and in the movies, and works of literary fiction where all things are possible, there is another realm where anything goes – virtual reality; video games; simulations of all kinds. It’s in fact a simulated Universe that resides in the guise of computer software. Software can be programmed to give rise to images or experiences of ghosts. Once you go down the simulation landscape route, you could, for example, have existence in other dimensional realms like the famous 2-D “Flatland”. That in fact might well be the case if the Holographic Universe Hypothesis is correct.