Ask HN: Halloween: What would be classed as a "Ghost" detection?
Hi HN,
Strange question, I know, but I feel this is a good place to ask the question: What would be classed as a "Ghost" detection?
I do not believe in anything; ghosts, deities, witches, skeletons with bows and arrows, zombies or anything else. But I'm obsessed with Ghost hunting YouTube channels. I know it's a load of nonsense, however, like Mulder, somewhere deep down "I want to believe". I understand it's all side effects of being human with good filmography that make this entertaining.
These hunters use some strange equipment, "Rem Pods", EMF testers, "Spiritboxes", etc. These are all easily debunked.
But it got me thinking; What would actually prove the existence of a ghost? What phenomena and what evidence would actually be required?
I don't think anything will ever be found as concrete evidence, but without knowing what the acceptance criteria is, we're ultimately always going to be looking in the wrong place.
PS. It's Halloween soon so thought this may be a fun thought experiment.
Define “ghost” in details and you get your test criteria
I have the perfect comic for this.
https://existentialcomics.com/comic/495
On a more practical level, there's a distinction to be made between (A) whether there is something unusual and detectable, versus (B) whether it supports a huge extra set of supernatural baggage.
This distinction is especially important in the related field of UFOs.
That's a great comic, and that's where I sit.
Appreciate the comment, but what would (B) involve?
As I see it, it's all EMF (could be picked up from anywhere), no mass spectrometers, no actual science.
Well, I suppose evidence for the trickier (B) would be if the inexplicable EMF signal also had information telling the widow exactly where to dig in order to retrieve her late husband's buried treasure, or it clearly predicted future events, etc.
That would be in contrast to weird measurements that can't be explained with current science... Buuuut it's a sine-wave that only occur when the neighbors are running their microwave oven. A physicist might get an interesting paper out of it, but it wouldn't upend our understanding of life and death.
Yea agree. It's always something. Rays from the sun, a phone mast or something else. But what signals could be sent that are provable? Even if a ghost told you where to find the money. No one would believe you.
I'll make sure to remember some prime numbers for when I croak.
If it can be trusted to let the dog out on mornings when I'm sleeping in, then I'll credit it as real. Bonus if it'll also empty/rinse/refill her water dish, and take care of her breakfast. But serious penalties if it isn't reliable about giving her half the can, or leaves a can or lid where she can get at it. (The vet bill from that bloody gash on her tongue was not trivial.)
More generally - reliable, useful, macroscopic physical actions, requiring non-trivial judgement.
The cat is same for me. If it could pick the nightly dead rodent so I don't have to explain murder to the kids every day that would be great.
But ultimately what machine/device could show something? I appreciate not one reading could do this and it would have to be repeatable.