Maybe they could have their own talk show. And it could broadcast coast to coast
this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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Showerthoughts
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*ghost-to-ghost
Are you getting enough oxygen? flex
If they're unaffected by gravity, chances are they don't have mass. If they don't have mass, they're not constrained by the Higgs field, which in turn means that they can never move at any velocity below light speed.
Their unfortunate fate is to roam across all of space at the maximum possible velocity in perpetuity.
Their unfortunate fate is to roam across all of space at the maximum possible velocity in perpetuity.
On the other hand, it all happens in an instant to them.
Nah we're by a catholic cemetery. They definitely have mass. I suggest instead they all fall to the Earth's Core since learning to ghost fly probably takes more than 80 minutes, and once you're down in the ghost orgy why leave?
fall to the Earth's Core
we can save them, but I'll need a rat, a giant nuclear drill train, and a family of orcas
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And experience no time.
Can't you theoretically just move super fast but across a very small distance? They could just "stay" with the Earth, moving with it as needed, maybe eventually they'd learn to do that automatically as well.
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I wanna get off Mr. Bone's Wild Ride.
So everyone who ever died spends all eternity consciously drifting in space.
So eventually, the ghosts stopped thinking.
Massless light is still affected by gravity, though...
Mass distorts spacetime, which to an outside observer appears to change the direction light travels. The light travels in a straight line.
Gravity doesn't alter the particle's trajectory (or ours, for that matter). The warping of spacetime from Earth's mass causes our movement through space to accelerate "down" at ~9.8 m/s^2
So the ghosts are in the center of the Earth, in nearly literal hell.
They would fall through the center of the earth, continue back up through the mantle, pop up momentarily to spook someone on the opposite hemisphere, then repeat the whole trip in reverse with a period of about 40 minutes.
Hm.. actually are they incorporeal AND massless, or just incorporeal?
If just incorporeal, you're right of course that initially after death they'd be falling back and forth, but over time through uneven gravity/curvature and through heat loss (stretching of unequal acceleration applied across the ghost essence, potential energy conversion, yadda), they should generally settle to the center after some time, unless there's a maximum natural pressure of ghosts at whatever temperatures they have, so they may spread out somewhere within the crust if there are enough of them.
If they're incorporeal AND massless, then I totally F'd up and they'd fire off at light speed as soon as they shed their mortal coil.
But light isn't a particle it's a wave. I mean, just look at it... Oh... Forget it. It's a particle.
It's neither a particle nor a wave, it's a photon.
A zebra is neither a horse nor a tiger, though it shares properties with both.
It was a joke -- it behaves as a wave until you observe it; then it collapses into a particle.
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This sounds like it should be the premise of a Doctor Who episode.
Or they’re flung in a straight-line tangent out from Earth’s orbit, like water drops flying off a spinning sponge
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I misread ghosts as "goats"
Psh, goats aren't real
Goats can climb anything, so maybe they climbed all the way into space?
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I think about the same thing every time I watch a time travel movie or show.
They should teleport into empty space every time
Well, not The Doctor.
Who?
Exactly
I guess that depends on whether you only travel through time (time vs space), or whether you follow the time-line back (aka. travel through time and space, kinda like both you and I are doing right now).
EDIT: there's also the reference point, and whether you can bring a physical vessel, or have to possess your younger self.
Back to the Future appears to be using a kind of relative spatial reference point, and you bring your body along the ride.
Contrary, Steins Gate (the part shown in the series) uses a body as reference, and has you "possess" said body. Though it hints that Back to the Future-like travel is also possible.
Not sure if I can name any story where time and space are disconnected.
Larry niven and the known space universe. Doesn't have time travel, but does have a form of teleportation, where you have to offset the energies for velocity changes between teleport target and teleport destination.
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There's scifi that did this. The series Seven Days is one example
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Which is why they're usually just temporary visitors to Earth. The planet is actually passing through them, so they fade in, crying their despair at their lonely fate, and fade back out...
So…we’re flying through a universe filled with ghosts and the appear as we happen upon them as we glide through space. Which is truly fascinating since most ghosts people see appear to be humans or humanoids clad in local clothing from the most recent three centuries of Human fashion. It’s mind boggling to think how many recent-development earths must have passed just in front of us over the billions of years of universe for us to see such spirits.
Either that or there are a lot of liars and hallucinations out there. I know which one of these options I believe in!
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Gives the term "stuck in limbo" a very sad, lonely meaning.
i mean, presuming ghosts can talk to each other there should at least be some company, and they ought to get to see some celestial objects now and then.
and hell at least you have space to stare at, as opposed to the nothingness of limbo
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You just made death infinitely more scary
I'm so sorry
If that were true, they'd speed away from us at about 900mph.
Much faster than that, even. The surface of the planet moves at up to ~1000mph relative to the earth’s center of mass, but once you factor in the orbit around the sun, the orbit around the galaxy, and even the galaxy’s motion, you’re looking at miles per second instead of mph.
One article I found when googling this says that measuring relative to the cosmic microwave background, we are moving at 390 km/s.
Relative to what, though? A lot of lore has ghost tied to locations on earth, which are typically fixed places. I guess if there was some kind of astology ghost tied to certain stars it might rocket off in some unexpected way.
Maybe that could be a tool in some exorcist’s bag. Convince a ghost it’s tied to some stars, and trick it into changing its frame of reference.
Sorry, adhd, just saw the microwave background part. What i said still makes sense though.
I think this might be the most fun answer, that the ghost decides its own frame of reference and can be tricked to choosing the wrong thing then just fly off into space at incredible speed.
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Are they also inertialess? Being immune to gravity won't make them just stop; stop, relative to what?
So, they continue in a straight line, while their body moves in rotation with the Earth's surface × orbit around the sun × orbit around Sagittarius A × whatever movement the Milky Way is making based on the local cluster... I wonder how much angular movement the supercluster is making.
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If ghosts are real... then every living thing, cockroach, dogs, fish, fleas, birds, they get ghosts too, billions upon billions of ghosts flooding, saturating the universe.
Inb4 they have miniscule but non zero mass, and they're the actual dark matter
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So if they don't experience gravity they are made of neither matter nor antimatter.
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