Ghosts!

Happy Halloween! This marks one year of Potions for Muggles. I just re-read my very first post a year ago where apparently I wrote about alchemy and teaching. Coincidentally, I’ve just started reading The Chemistry of Alchemy written by chemistry professors who were also responsible for writing the joy of chemistry. I’ve only read the first two chapters so I haven’t formed a solid opinion on the book yet. Each short chapter comes with Do-It-Yourself instructions for the reader interested in recreating alchemical reactions. Safety information is included and emphasized. I think I’ll stick to watching videos of others attempting these. Let’s say that the smells are less desirable. In fact the subtitle of the book is “From Dragon’s Blood to Donkey Dung, How Chemistry was Forged”. I’ll stay away from donkey dung, thank you very much.

In the first Harry Potter book, the discovery of the 12 uses of dragon’s blood is attributed to Dumbledore. Harry first learns this from a Chocolate Frog card. He also learns about Nicolas Flamel and alchemy from that same card. When Harry arrives at his new school, Hogwarts, he also encounters ghosts for the first time – the subject of today’s Halloween-appropriate post.

What are ghosts? According to Severus Snape, the potions master at Hogwarts, a ghost “is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth”. Sir Nicholas, the ghost of Gryffindor House, elaborates: “Wizards can leave an imprint of themselves upon the earth, to walk palely where their living selves once trod.” Ghosts show very little interaction with physical matter familiar to us. They pass smoothly through solid objects and do not seem influenced by gravity. Perhaps they are made out of neutrinos, sometimes referred to as ghost particles. Maybe magic can interact with neutrinos, localizing them as an “imprint” when a wizard “dies” but does not move on to what Dumbledore calls “the next great adventure”.

Although technically not alive, ghosts certainly seem to be sentient. Since I’ve been pondering artificial intelligence (A.I.) and life in recent posts, perhaps a comparison between ghosts and A.I.’s are appropriate. A sufficiently advanced A.I. would appear sentient to humans in its interactions with us. One could in fact create a modern ghost using a holographic projection animated by a computer that looks ghost-like. However for the ghost to verbally interact with humans, it would require physical (i.e. non ghost-like) sensors for listening and a speaking device. Not to mention some physical hardware needs to project the holograms.

How could ghosts pass through solid opaque objects within a room? If electromagnetic radiation was the source of the hologram (rather than neutrinos which we don’t quite know how to manipulate), a room equipped with a sufficient number of sensors and projectors could simulate this. However my money would be on a virtual reality (VR) system to more effectively simulate, not just ghosts, but any other magical interactions. Come to think of it, maybe I should put some actual investment money into emerging VR technologies. The VR option would be much cheaper than outfitting a castle in Poland with some serious souped-up technology. But perhaps the physical human experience is key – at least now while the technology is still somewhat primitive. If you could get to the level of the Matrix, now you’d have serious competition – so serious you might not be able to tell the difference.

Would Hufflepuff Hippo become a ghost post-mortem? I don’t know. The next great adventure sounds appealing provided I had “a well-organized mind” (according to Dumbledore). Is my mind sufficiently well-organized? I have no idea how this is determined. However if Hufflepuff Hippo were to become ghostly, the resident ghost of Hufflepuff House, the Fat Friar, seems like a jolly example. Not much is known about the Fat Friar in the Harry Potter books – much more is revealed in Pottermore, but I don’t read it. The books depict the Fat Friar as sociable, welcoming, forgiving, enjoying food and drink (at least in his former life), and excited about meeting new students. I’m guessing there was some religious component to the Friar’s life, hence he would have been “an educated person” in the Middle Ages – he might even have been an alchemist. Or a very good cook. Perhaps a fat fryer.

Happy Halloween! Here’s to another year of Potions for Muggles, if I can keep up the discipline of writing.