Let me ask you a serious question. Do you believe in ghosts?

Before I continue, let me put my proverbial cards on the table and say that I do not believe in ghosts, certainly not in the sense that they are the wandering souls of the departed. Last night, however, I found myself thinking that perhaps there is a logical explanation, other than “it’s your imagination,” for the existence of ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural entities.

We’re all familiar with the concept of “bugs” in the computer programs we use, glitches that crop up from time to time with unexpected consequences. These bugs can be notoriously difficult to track down and sometimes, downright impossible. The conditions necessary to recreate the bug may be unique to whatever conditions were present while you experienced the glitch.

The information technology geeks among you are familiar with the concept of ‘cross site scripting,” where often malicious (though not always so) code is inserted into an insecure Web application.

What if “ghosts,” “spirits,” and other apparitions are a kind of ‘cross contamination’ in a simulated universe?

There are those who posit that we are living in a simulation. I’m not saying that we are, though I find the thought, “fascinating,” as Mr Spock would have said. In a simulation, we suddenly have a logical explanation for supernatural phenomena.

Ghosts and other apparitions could be flashes of code, rogue or simply accidental, appearing in our part of the simulation. That would make them both real, from our perspective, and virtually impossible to duplicate.

So, what do you think? Discuss!