/** 
 * file: journal_karbytes_26july2025_p0.txt 
 * type: plain-text 
 * date: 26_JULY_2025 
 * author: karbytes 
 * license: PUBLIC_DOMAIN 
 */

I was thinking the following thoughts today while hiking and camping alone in the wilderness:

A "ghost" is a person who is sufficiently effective at pretending to be dead (according to most of society).

As a relevant aside, most humans start off as "bums" (and a "bum" is a person who does not contribute "meaningfully" to society but noticeably consumes quite a bit of resources and is generally treated by society as being more of an expensive "burden" (to people other than itself) than a useful "asset" (to people other than itself)).

A "ghost" is essentially a "bum" in stealth mode. Such a person rarely if ever inconveniences people other than itself because such a person tends to be frugal and thrifty with what little resources it has (and it almost certainly receives significantly fewer resources and social support than people who are not "ghosts" (because society generally rewards a person for being a noticeably embodied member of society who is obviously interdepent with and in frequent close proximity with and in frequent communication with people other than itself (especially for the end of establishing or fortifying a nuclear family within the context of an economically productive household))).

A "ghost" (or "bum" in general) might possibly contribute "meaningfully" to society in ways which are not formally or popularly recognized such as publishing artwork in the public domain or providing feedback in the form of public comments on other people's social media or forum posts. Such information and feedback can potentially be useful to indefinitely many people by providing them entertainment, comfort, or practical insight (yet such contributions are not generally taxable nor awarded certificates of achievement in a sense which is meaningful beyond the confines of cyberspace wilderness). By contrast, "non bums" tend to do things which have much more noticeable and widely commemorated effects in society beyond cyberspace (namely in the provision of tangible products, tangible services, and generation of human offspring).

I currently think of myself as being a "ghost" by these (relatively informal and arbitrary) definitions. I assume that is my preferred way of being human and that I will continue to prefer being a "ghost" for the remainder of my human existence (and perhaps beyond my human existence (and perhaps forever after all of my incarnated existence)).

* * *

Suppose nearly every person (if not every person) alive in human civilization after some point in time (after today) decided to be "ghosts". Then human civilization would stop making new members via sexual reproduction or cloning (using artificial wombs) because not enough people would feel motivated to channel resources towards such endeavors. Instead, such people would essentially be the same as me (aside from inhabiting their own unique bodies with their own personality quirks and varied personal interests and knowledge). Such people could work in a factory or some similar role which pays them a modest amount of money to perform some token amount of labor (which can vary in actual usefulness). Such a civilization seems predominantly "anti-natal" and focused on making its current members as comfortable as possible while such members possibly use up resources and tax the ecosystem beyond being able to comfortably support future generations of humans (but some of those existing people might manage to garner enough resources and societal/infrastructural influence to extend their individual lifespans and well-being beyond what has historically been expected and deemed possible such that some (if not all people alive at that time or later) could effectively each live for as long as they want to without any socially imposed limits (and perhaps even avoiding disease and being annihilated by the hypothesized eventual heat death of the universe for a limitlessly long time through technological adaptations including precisely controlling their encompassing cosmos to never cease being habitable for themselves)).