Seems likely. The most rigid materially known, (or at least theorized) is nuclear pasta.. Nuclear pasta only forms inside neutron stars, stellar objects that are the last stage of matter before matter gives up entirely and collapses into a black hole.

It would work, but only in the impossible world where you have a perfectly rigid unbreakable stick. But such an object cannot exist in this universe.

Pick up a solid rigid object near you. Anything will do, a coffee cup, a comb, a water bottle, anything. Pick it up from the top and lift it vertically. Observe it.

It seems as though the whole object moves instantaneously, does it not? It seems that the bottom of the object starts moving at the exact same instant as the top. But it is actually not the case. Every material has a certain elasticity to it. Everything deforms slightly under the tiniest of forces. Even a solid titanium rod deforms a little bit from the weight of a feather placed upon it. And this lack of perfect rigidity means that there is a very, very slight delay from when you start lifting the top of the object to when the bottom of it starts moving.

For small objects that you can manipulate with your hands, this delay is imperceptible to your senses. But if you observed an object being lifted with very precise scientific equipment, you could actually measure this delay. Motion can only transfer through objects at a finite speed. Specifically, it can only move at the speed of sound through the material. Your perfectly rigid object would have an infinite speed of sound within it. So yes, it would instantly transfer that motion. But with any real material, the delay wouldn’t just be noticeable, but comically large.

Imagine this stick were made of steel. The speed of sound in steel is about 5120 m/s. The distance to the Moon is about 400,000 km. Converting and dividing shows that it would actually take about 22 hours for a pulse like that to travel through a steel pole that long. (Ignoring how the steel pole would be supported.)

So in fact, you are both right and wrong. You are correct for the object you describe. A perfectly rigid object would be usable as a tool of FTL communication. But such an object simply cannot exist in this universe.

You will end up paying the share of taxes to your state government that you currently do to the federal government. If the federal government collapses, all 50 states are now de facto independent. Those states can now start forming a new country or new collection of countries as they will.

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Nah, I’m just saying that if you’re a health insurance CEO, you deserve to be tied to a boulder and thrown into the Sea.

There’s no shortage of rocks at our disposal. If it’s the labor costs you’re worried about, I suppose we could force the CEOs to quarry and carry their own rock.

Yes, I suppose the boulder has some value as well.

Well, I suppose it’s PTSD-inducing if someone is a health insurance CEO. But if that’s the case…TO THE SEA WITH YOU!!

Well, that’s something I’ll actually apologize for. This is meant to be a humorous vent, not PTSD inducing.

Now I’m morbidly curious what joke you were thinking…

I’m not hearing a no. Do you hear the waves? They call to you!

Holy shit, here comes an s!

I mean, yeah, but it just doesn’t have the same vibe to it. You can’t make a grandiose speech about “condemning them to the depths.” Plus it’s just much more terrifying, watching the surface of the water rise above you, as you’re pulled inexhorably down into the abyss…

Also, the water muffles the screaming!

But they’re providing valuable nutrients to endangered sea critters, so it balances out from an environmental perspective.

You think politicians are the ones who write the laws? You wouldn’t happen to be a CEO would you? If so, I do believe you yearn for the Sea…

Sure. But it just doesn’t have the same fire and brimstone “wrath of an angry God” feel to it. Guillotines are quick. But if you really hate someone, you’ll go to the trouble of hauling an 800 lb boulder around just to off 'em. If you really want to show your displeasure with someone, you’ll go to the trouble of loading a giant rock on a boat and hauling it an hour offshore. It’s “I hate you so much I’m willing to go to this amount of effort!”

500 million, but not a single one more.

Sure. I remember reading the concept somewhere, perhaps in an old r/asksciencefiction thread. I didn’t come up with it originally.

I don’t believe in ghosts or psychic phenomena, but I do love the concept in fiction that ghosts aren’t actual human souls. Rather, they’re a sort of psychic “burn in.” If a living person experiences strong emotions, such as a prolonged period of grieving, or the incredible emotional intensities that come with being murder victim, those emotions can become embedded within a place. Do you grieve for a deceased partner, mourning for years, remembering key moments over and over? A reflection of that grief becomes embedded within reality in the location you experienced those emotions. When you die or leave, someone else can come into that place and experience a recording, a reflection, or echo of the emotions and memories you experienced.

Ghosts are effectively traumatic memories burned in to the fabric of the world. They don’t actually experience anything; they’re not conscious beings. They’re not souls looking to complete their business and move on. They’re simply psychic echoes. They’re imprints left on reality from very intense and painful emotions, particularly those experienced repeatedly over a long period of time.

This also explains why ghosts have a half life. Ever wonder why in the US, all the ghosts seem to be old timey white people from the 1800s or similar? Considering the total number of Native Americans that must have lived in what is now the US down the millennia, the vast, vast majority of ghosts should be Native American. But aside from the classic example of a disturbed native burial ground, Native American ghosts don’t show up much in fiction. It’s usually old timey white people.

The reason for this, in the imprint theory, is that like any imprint, ghosts tend to fade with time. Just as most footprints will slowly be eroded, the knots in the psychic fabric that ghosts represent slowly work themselves out over time. The ghosts people do experience tend to be from the last century or two, as most ghosts older than that have decayed below the level of human perception.