Comments on: Zombies: Can You Kill the Undead?

By: billy kenny

billy kenny — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:12:43 +0000

nice

By: detox foot pad

detox foot pad — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 20:56:29 +0000

It is evident that you like doing what you do as your enthusiasm can be seen in all your work. Don’t ever let the passion pass on as we are here always looking forward to what you have in store for us. Thanks for your eagerness to share your stunning masterpieces.

By: Zombies! Zombies everywhere! - Nerdcore

Zombies! Zombies everywhere! - Nerdcore — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:49:12 +0000

[...] You Ever Wanted To Ask About Zombies, Answered, Delay the Decay: How Zombie Biology Would Work, Zombies: Can You Kill the Undead?, Zombies: Ethics of the Undead! und Newsweek hat auch was zu den lebenden Toten: What We Mean When [...]

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 21:49:39 +0000

An interesting potentiality is the evolution of the zombie pathogen. While, according to your analysis, the corpse is not alive, the pathogen is. So, given enough time and selection pressure, we would expect to see an evolution of the pathogen. Such an evolution would, I think, produce the effects of having less/slower decomposition effects on its hijacked corpses and/or producing increased ability to reproduce itself, either in terms of endogenous capacity or its ability to infect/hijack more or better suited corpse-hosts. Also, there would be the potential for piggyback traits which would be impossible to predict.

However, since you stipulate that the pathogen would have to be engineered, it may be about as efficient as its going to get at the initial outbreak point, though some evolution would still occur given the sufficient time and selection pressure.

One potential design feature could be a well balanced mutative tendency which would keep the pathogen stable enough to maintain its core functionality but adapt to potential environmental changes or unforeseen factors.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:33:20 +0000

Romeo,

While I’m sure that taking out the heart, lungs, etc. would eventually put a zombie down, I’m not sure that it would do it fast enough. When the flesh-supping hordes are bearing down on you, you want rapid incapacitation, and nothing says “rapid incapacitation” like a head shot.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:43:42 +0000

Yeah, but who wants their house and car to smell like decaying flesh all the time?

Wet dog smell is bad enough. Wet Zombie… ugh.

By: dave chamberlin

dave chamberlin — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 14:19:51 +0000

Everybody is so racist when it comes to zombies. Who is to say you can’t put them on a leash and tame them with a steady diet of kool aid and hot dogs. Of course you wouldn’t let them in the house, but you could give them a doghouse in the backyard and run an extension cord to an electric blanket. They will of course be worthless except as gaurd zombies, but they would be damned good at that. Why you can leave them in your parked car with the windows up and nobody will steal your car. Of course they would have to be trained at no biting before you could go that far.

By: Kyle Munkittrick

Kyle Munkittrick — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 00:03:40 +0000

@Romeo & Chris: you are both right, as far as my analysis goes. It’s scary to think of just how little our body might actually need for minimal functioning.

By: Romeo Vitelli

Romeo Vitelli — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 23:31:38 +0000

Any major damage to the central nervous system should do the trick. For that matter, a functioning brain implies a functioning heart, lungs, kidney, etc. That’s why I never liked the idea that zombies could only be stopped by destroying their brains.

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:37:46 +0000

If I understand this correctly, the undead brain lacks many of the fuctions of a living brain, but the zombie pathogen still allows enough brain activity to control motor functions (albeit poorly), and enough sensory function to allow the undead to seek flesh by whatever means (I would assume vision is the primary means of target identification) and a few other basic thought processes.

If all this is correct, then it stands to reason that the physical destruction of the brain would disable these capabilities and render the zombie, if not un-undead, at least inert.

In short, the ole “12-gauge to the noggin” solution should work just fine. Hopefully.