What does " people are born with nothing inside, or lose what little they have -living ghosts" mean?

Full context, See Creg Bear's Dead Lines.

I've downloaded. Unfortunately, I neither can find out its download link again nor upload the pfd file and link it to here.

In one city, indeed. Inspirational.

Does the beast refer to the device or our desire?

Beats me, Ori. You'd have to ask Don Henley or Glen Frey. [sp ??]

Here's Henley's reply:

(Regret) ...My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument...

Well, just hear the lyric with your heart.

That's the long and the short of it,
The Ghost in the lack of flesh or the ghost in the pursuit of it.
Beautiful!