Walking Dead/Zombie Discussions

AssassinsMace said:

I know in the comfort of their homes with a refrigerator full of food, they can be snobby about food.

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And those people would be the first ones to get munched on in a zombie apocalypse .

As for the "everyone is infected" thing, that's similar to how the Romero world works, except Romero never specified the cause of the rising, but it's pretty heavily implied that it's supernatural.

In fact, even though the CDC episode tried to provide a "rational" explanation for the zombies, it's far more likely that the scientist was wrong, or simply seeing a superficial symptom. The walking dead zombies must be supernatural because they defy the laws of physics. A severed head cannot function indefinitely without a source of energy. Same thing applies for the zombies themselves. As they are depicted, the zombies are perpetual motion machines, without any apparent energy input. Strap a couple of them to a mill, and you've got an infinite energy generator!

solarz said:

And those people would be the first ones to get munched on in a zombie apocalypse .

As for the "everyone is infected" thing, that's similar to how the Romero world works, except Romero never specified the cause of the rising, but it's pretty heavily implied that it's supernatural.

In fact, even though the CDC episode tried to provide a "rational" explanation for the zombies, it's far more likely that the scientist was wrong, or simply seeing a superficial symptom. The walking dead zombies must be supernatural because they defy the laws of physics. A severed head cannot function indefinitely without a source of energy. Same thing applies for the zombies themselves. As they are depicted, the zombies are perpetual motion machines, without any apparent energy input. Strap a couple of them to a mill, and you've got an infinite energy generator!

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I believe the Romeo zombies were because of a meteor crashing on Earth suggesting radiation and mutation. Correct me if that's wrong. I remember that being one of the first things I ever heard regarding zombie movies and George Romero was the one that started these zombie apocalypse genre of movies. Of course if you go to Romeo's sequel, Dawn of the Dead, a biblical explanation is thrown out there where when there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth meaning human kind brought this upon themselves.

The whole CDC idea was Frank Darabont's idea not Kirkman's. Since Darabont was the top dog of the Walking Dead production at that time, he probably decided for himself to put his spin. BTW, I don't recall the CDC guy explaining what caused it. He just said everyone was infected was the only revelation I recall. Kirkman has gone on record saying that he's never tried to explain what caused the zombie apocalypse because that's not what The Walking Dead is about. It's about the people who live in it. I haven't read the comic so I don't know if only being bitten by a zombie turns you into a zombie rule works there. Given Scott Gimple's comments afterwards on Talking Dead, he literally said there was nothing wrong with eating tainted meat because everyone is already infected. So it sounds like eating zombies would not be different from eating any other source of meat.

Killing/harvesting the zombies on an industrial scale is in fact a rather trivial matter.

One great weakness the zombies have is that they lack survival instincts. They do not become scared, become vigilant or are aware of dangers. That means given a human bait, they would simply follow him in a predictable path no matter what. Thus, if one build a slaughter house with a door directly leading to a meat grinder, and have a human bait waiting behind it, the zombies will simply follow through the grinder and enter the fertiliser/food processing plant more or less automatically. It will be even simpler than mass fishing.

One can also trap a few in a hamster wheel and start using them as a rather unlimited physical power source. Given the original idea of "zombies" comes from voodoo sorcerers using dead people or hypnotised people as slaves, this possibility should not be far off. Zombies are better than mules, they don't have to be fed and can work hard 24/7 as long as there is a bait in front of the wheel.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

And the most Disturbing post of the Day goes to...Seriously taking the moto of "If you can't Beat'em Join'em" beyond any level ever though of before.
lets take the zombie thing and roll with it for a second.

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Okay, I need to put up a disclaimer that I am not serious when talking about "eating" them---yak. LoL

The point I was trying to make is that: running away from predators may be ideal for an individual but not ideal for a tribe or society.

The reason humanity's natural predicators: tigers, wolfs, lions etc ceased to be any threat to us in general was because once upon a time we hunted them down, hunted them really hard, for revenge, for game, for their skins and in some cases also for meat.

If one can find an economic purpose and value for the zombies, then I am pretty sure that in next to no time, zombies will also be hunted down until they are extinct. And they would be one of the easiest things to hunt.

wtlh said:

Okay, I need to put up a disclaimer that I am not serious when talking about "eating" them---yak. LoL

The point I was trying to make is that: running away from predators may be ideal for an individual but not ideal for a tribe or society.

The reason humanity's natural predicators: tigers, wolfs, lions etc ceased to be any threat to us in general was because once upon a time we hunted them down, hunted them really hard, for revenge, for game, for their skins and in some cases also for meat.

If one can find an economic purpose and value for the zombies, then I am pretty sure that in next to no time, zombies will also be hunted down until they are extinct. And they would be one of the easiest things to hunt.

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Thanks for bringing this up, as I was just thinking about the zombie apocalypse from a predator-prey dynamic point of view.

Humans are arguably unique in that we can be both prey and apex predator. All other animal species fill only one role when they become adults. Humans can be either, and everything in between. For example, a hunter armed with a rifle is an apex predator. A tourist lost in the woods is prey.

When we look at zombies, we could argue that their natural prey are humans, and their natural predators are also humans. Just different kinds of people. To use the Walking Dead as an example, Lori is prey, Michonne is a predator.

At the beginning of a zombie apocalypse, zombies would have plenty of prey and few predators, especially since few people would know how to deal with zombies. Thus, like all other biological organisms put into such a situation, their population explodes and they rapidly depopulate their prey.

As the ZA progresses, the prey-people die off and the predator-people survive. This means the zombies would find themselves in a situation where prey is scarce and they are more likely to run into predators than prey. Zombie population would then plateau, and one of two things would happen:

1) If zombies can eventually die of starvation, they will face the same fate as any other biological organism in this dynamic: population crash.

2) If zombies do NOT die of starvation, then their population will slowly dwindle as they are taken out by the survivors.

the 28 weeks later scenario, A Zombie rising like any plague will eventually burn it's self out as The Survivors Isolate themselves away form Zombie masses and The Zombies themselves physically deteriorate to a point where they are no longer able to be a Threat.

I forget what was the ecology of the World War Z zombies? Scientific or supernatural? Those zombies were super athletic and aggressive and spread quickly. They were also semi-intelligent forming a mound one on top of the other to get over a wall at one point. How to deal with those?

I think the key is going to be how well the outbreak is quarantined while it is still small otherwise it would easily spiral out of control and become even more difficult to quarantine due to socio-political inefficiencies. Not sure if quarantine is possible at all if the cause is supernatural.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

the 28 weeks later scenario, A Zombie rising like any plague will eventually burn it's self out as The Survivors Isolate themselves away form Zombie masses and The Zombies themselves physically deteriorate to a point where they are no longer able to be a Threat.

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What happens if a Zombie can hibernate it's metabolism and hold on until a prey (living humans) comes along?

Z was based on a Fictional virus a mutated Solanum virus. Generally modern Zombie movies have a Scientific basis, Radiation, Mutation, Virus, Bacterium ( Cordyceps see the Last of Us) even the Traditional Voodoo Zombie involves a Chemical mixture at the heart of which is toxins rooted from the Tetraodontidae family of Fish this family includes the Puffer fish enjoyed as the sashimi fugu. the Toxins cause a Paralysis much like Honey suckle sickness which can be confused for death. the victim is then buried and the Voodoo Master will sneak back and dig them back up and continually dose them with small amounts of narcotics keeping the victim in a easily controlled state.
Supernatural Zombies are closer to traditional Ghouls and have no real set rules.

A state of suspended animation for Zombies?
For dead Zombies ( meaning that they really are dead) no the Corpse would rot there is nothing that could stop that. It might be slowed but not stopped not with out preservation. personally the Idea of totally dead Zombies makes no logical sense. The body must be active in some form.

For the "Living Zombie" meaning that the Zombie is actually functioning at some level but there mental state has been altered due to infection. It might be possible. but then the issue is how alive are they and how long can there bodies last given there intake of Calories and water. a living human can last a week with out water and a month without food. a zombie may be able to last some time in that state the question then is just how is there metabolism working and is what ever is the root of the Zombie outbreak if for example the case of endoparasitoids, they have a life cycle leading to there spawning.

TerraN_EmpirE said:

Z was based on a Fictional virus a mutated Solanum virus. Generally modern Zombie movies have a Scientific basis, Radiation, Mutation, Virus, Bacterium ( Cordyceps see the Last of Us) ....

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I'd love to see a Sequel to "Z".