Endless torment

Upvoting because I've never seen this
but also I am now sad
But what's the frame of reference?
- The black hole in the centre of the universe.

Wtf this is terrifying

Eventually, she stopped thinking.

Is that a JoJo reference

I don't like this

I was expecting to see a trail of ghosts left behind as the earth moves away.

There is the Great Ghost Cluster in the distant void, passing messages up and down its endless stream of ghost bodies in order to log world events at the speed of voice.
- This is actually an awesome writing prompt: The older ghosts get updates from the younger ones, and send stories back from their own lives, like a long telephone wire..
Yeah, and anyone who died at the same time within sight of each other.

Or you just maintain your velocity at death. With no other forces, that's the way you head forever
- But this character died stationary on the floor. Unless it's the Earth moving away from her as part of its normal orbit, in which case she'll get to visit it again soon
There absolutely is a coordinate system like that, in the comic it would be the spirit's coordinate system with them at the center. There actually is an absolute center of the universe and it is you and me, and everything else in the universe is at the center of it's universe (depending on your definition of the universe). That's what special relativity is all about, each thing is at the center of it's own universe and you have to translate any measurements between coordinate systems.
All the comic implies is that a sprit doesn't follow null geodesics, but that's general relativity.
- There actually is an absolute center of the universe and it is you and me
  I think that's the observable universe, not just a specific definition of the universe. I believe the consensus is that the observable universe is only a part of the universe centered on each observer, and there's no center to the "full" universe.
- There actually is an absolute center of the universe and it is you and me,
  Oh stop it you🥰
I think they simply became totally massless and is no longer affected by gravity.
- Photons don't have mass, yet they are affected by gravity.

to be a little pedantic, if you take in account the rate of expansion of the universe, and take as a truth that the ghost stays stationary in spacetime, earth would disappear in an instant

The spirit is already moving at the same speed and in the same direction as the earth when it exits the body.
- That's a fair point. So then one might expect the ghost to continue their motion tangential to the orbit of the earth, and so they'll float away.
  However, the theory of general relativity suggests that gravity isn't really like other forces. It doesn't push or pull anything at all; but rather its bends the fabric of time and space. Objects 'falling' due to gravity, or 'in orbit' around a planet are actually moving in a direct straight line in curved space-time. And this is why gravity still applies to massless objects such as light. So then, I'd say the ghost would still be affected by gravity - and that their main concern would be falling into the earth rather than drifting away.
- 😆 this comment really amused me, i guess the basic physics plus ghosts in the same matter-of-fact statement
- But that would imply that the ghost is a physical thing right?
  Does it come to existence when we are born? Or does it appear when we die?
  Does It behave like matter? If not, properties like velocity, inertia or energy wouldn't apply.
  The comic is really amusing to bring forth these questions
- And it would still be gone in an instant
- Nah, it won't be perfect. Some, tiny divergent velocity will exist.
Would that not depend on your inertial frame? Like isn't the entire concept of being stationary relative to spacetime not an actual thing? I'm not trying to be pedantic, BTW, I literally don't know the answer to my question.
- Yup. Same as the time travel meme that was on the front page recently, this relies on there being a fixed inertial frame which is not a thing in our weird universe.
which is all the more terrifying

Nothing is as terrifying as SpaceEngine.

Frankly. This… software rearranged my brain and changed me fundamentally.

There are no words to describe being lost in the 10^{27 of space. It’s just too much, you will go insane and if you survive you will lose the ability to talk with people, lose every single thing that you thought matters. You will be alone even in the busiest of places, some part of you forever stuck in the 10}27 of emptiness between Galaxy Groups.

This isn’t a joke. Ignorance is bliss

It's anxiety inducing in VR, so fucking cool
I don't know if I want to try this or not now

So there's just a long ass trail of ghosts floating in space?

At least some sections would be heavily populated....

No, because the solar system is moving together along the outer edge of the ~~cosmos~~ Milky Way. I don't know if there's anything such as a cosmic absolute frame of reference for "no motion", but (depending on what you're motionless in reference to) you would likely never see another soul.

Odd how they chose gravity, but not the fact the earth is both rotating and revolving around the sun. Even more than that, the entire solar system is revolving around the center of our galaxy.

The way I interpreted it, is that gravity normally holds you on Earth despite all the effects you listed, and gravity not affecting this ghost, that's the problem.
- Gravity is just the pressure of all the ghosts keeping us down
The effect of rotation is visible in the first two pictures, she is floating sideways.

Should be a comet trail of ghosts drifting behind the Earth. She wouldn’t be alone.

They would be pretty far apart though

Thank you, just what I needed. More existential horror. 💀👍🏻

Well do catch up on SMBC if that's actually your objective. His bits are deeper on all that than anything I've read without some good drugs.

I always thought it was fun to imagine you are an immortal being and you get to walk around pranking people like jumping in front of a train but just bounce off or eating a sandwich with bleach but you are perfectly ok then one day the sun balloons and eventually the earth gets destroyed and you are wisked away then eventually trapped in the gravity well of a brown dwarf star and get sucked to the center for trillions of years.

terrorists and warmongers were the real good guys after all...?

ITT: people thinking way too hard about a comic

This is my religion now
- Mine too but mine is slightly different and I'm gonna have to kill you now.
- Praise Fido
It is always a good time for some philosophy
Too hard for what?

With the death rate I feel like it wouldn't be that lonely

Space is a lot bigger than the death rate.
- Yeah but you're likely to die around the same time as another person. As long as you can float as fast as you could run, im sure you'd eventually find a partner....
Provided that ghosts can even see or interact with other ghosts...
- Why couldn't they and do only humans have ghosts

Eventually, Kars stopped thinking

This was an unfortunate way to start my day

loses mind

gains ultimate power

becomes Azathoth:

"the ancient legends of Ultimate Chaos, at whose center sprawls the blind idiot god Azathoth, Lord of All Things, encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and amorphous dancers, and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demonic flute held in nameless paws"

Or Cthulhu, The Unknowable One.
- Or Yog-Sothoth, The One and All

So do they just maintain their initial velocity or would we have a chance to discover the static reference velocity of the universe?

Also they would still be affected by gravity if they still exist in space. Gravity is not a force that pulls objects together. It is merely the act of going straight in curved space. Either they are in that space and they are going to move along it within the shape of that space or they are not in that space. Though really if they just moved in a straight line with no external forces they are going to be subterranean because a real straight line in our space is down.

We're talking about ghosts here, we don't know what laws they follow. That said, either you are right or they would be miles far from earth before being able to finish that first sentence.
No a real straight line in our space is not down
- I mean everything is made up of little spheres do straight lines even exist

What if a ghost is affected by gravity but not other "fundamental" force in the standard model? This will raise a lot of interesting questions. Is... ghost dark matter?

If the ghost is affected by gravity, but is able to pass through solid objects, then it will get sucked down into the core of the earth and burn forever. Which interestingly is what some people say is what happens.
- Huh, interesting though on some religion huh
- Not forever, just till the core finally cools down from Theia hitting us.

So ghosts consist of mass?

I mean clearly not since gravity isn't affecting her
- Gravity affects massless things, like light
- Oh, then the earth moved away? Damn, I got the whole thing wrong.

Finally billions of years without social interactions.

I have always imagined it this way.

This reminds me of psychedelics suprisingly lot

Calm yourself, the Monad is a long journey away even for a spirit.

Being alone is not torment to everyone

This isn't just being alone. This is being in a black void for an incomprehensible amount of time.
- And that is being alone. No stimulus whatsoever
- But it wouldn't be a black void? My second thought was "where are all the stars?".
- I would say this is literally as alone as one could be...

Reminds me of an ending to a certain mediocre but entertaining Nathan Fielder HBO show. Wild finale that had nothing to do with the rest of the show.

it was on Showtime in the US.
- Oh, I'm dumb. Showtime I meant.

If they are not bound to the laws of physics, what would they need gravity for?

I was expecting her to snap back into her body and wake up with disappointment after astral projecting

Fuckin OUCH