Discussion Forums > The Lounge
Ghost Love?
Nikkoru:
I don't think television has hit a lower point than Ghost Hunters, and Crossing Over with John Edward. I understand the stupid thrill some people get when drunk on creepy atmosphere; A shaking camera in night vision mode, panicked voices, background music fit for Silent Hill, and a long and creative "history" to set up the whole titillation. Still, the whole Ghosthunters experience could be replicated by grade school students with cellphone cameras and proper editing. John Edward simply made a small fortune off of cold-reading people, and other fraudulent parlour tricks. Which is, in retrospect, actually an amazing talent. Though not moral talent, and obnoxiously distasteful once you realize he's preying on people's willingness to delude themselves in fervent hope that they may seek absolution from the dead.
The underlying mythology of the ghost is just pathetic. Unlike alien encounters or religious mythologies - with aliens the conclusion you can draw is that we're not alone in the universe and something is interested in us. That makes us special, and the universe more interesting. Religions put the universe into an essentially just framework of predictability. Even if bad things happen, so long as you follow the major social mores of your society you'll be comforted and rewarded even if you should die. With ghost, what is there? Some good fodder for fiction, certainly. Perhaps the titillation and adrenaline-fuelled joy of shrieking in terror knowing full well that you're perfectly safe like in haunted houses and scary movies. But the thought of people, or some part of us that exists after death, just floating about aimlessly for all eternity is... deeply distasteful When the universe dissolves into entropy, do they just exists there in blackness for eternity? At least religions promise liquor, women, and carousing with other valiant dead. Or some variation on that theme.
mrdkreka:
"Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see" Edgar Allan Poe
Seeing things that doesn't exist often means you are schizophrenia or suffer from angst.
The chance for alien to exist are 1:1-∞ (or more precise, 1: the expanding speed of the universe), however the odds that they are viewable by our eyes are 1:1-∞.
I believe that you believe you are seeing ghost, but it is nothing more than just an illusion.
Meomix:
Mah, bring some friends or enthusiasts over for the weekend to confirm your suspicions on unexplained phenomena.
Raylightsa3:
Ill probably do that sometime until then ill just enjoy the company
Ixarku:
--- Quote from: Nikkoru on March 30, 2012, 11:51:26 AM ---But the thought of people, or some part of us that exists after death, just floating about aimlessly for all eternity is... deeply distasteful When the universe dissolves into entropy, do they just exists there in blackness for eternity? At least religions promise liquor, women, and carousing with other valiant dead. Or some variation on that theme.
--- End quote ---
Personally, I find the concept of disembodied spirits more believable and less distasteful than the afterlife envisioned by the more popular Bible-based religions, largely because I think most religions are too egocentric to be trustworthy. I think I've mentioned before, I have a deep distrust of most things human since perceptions are so subjective in nature, and the majority of religions have roots in times & beliefs that predate a lot of modern scientific knowledge.
Beyond the mundane explanations for 'ghosts', of course, I don't draw any conclusions about what 'ghosts' might be, or what sort of post-death existence there is or could be. In the end, all we have to go by is what our perceptions tell us and what science can unravel (and, for the 'faithful', whatever stories they happen to believe for whatever reasons). I label myself as an atheist because I don't believe in the mainstream anthropomorphic version of God, but I don't explicitly exclude the possibility of other realms of existence or consciousness.
The one thing that does deeply disturb me, though, not to go too far off-topic, is the idea of 'downloading' a human mind into a computer. Are we really just the sum of our physical chemistry, or does the self actually have an intangible component (ie, a soul)? And, assuming sufficient technical prowess, can our consciousnesses really be scientifically separated from our meat body and stuck into an exclusively electronic shell? Would you still be you, or would that electronic version just be a copy? If our science ever gets to that point, I wonder if we'll unravel the nature of mortality as a step along the way to scientific immortality, or if gaining the knowledge will be a consequence of that technology.
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