Poll: Do you think there could ever be a zombie apocalypse?

[BloodSquirrel]

1) No disease, fungus, chemical, or anything else is going to get around the basic laws of physics or change human biology so significantly.

There's a reason that people die when you shoot them. It's because our bodies can't operate without consuming oxygen, and we need all of those organs in order for that process to happen. Without circulating blood, the brain will die in minutes. No virus is going to allow part of it to keep operating without the necessary chemical reactions needed to provide it with the energy to do so.

2) Even if there were a thousand zombies for every survivor, the survivors would have little trouble wiping them all out. It's basic math- if you can set aside an hour day to kill zombies, and kill even just 100 zombies an hour (easily and safely done with a spear-like weapon that extends your reach while you sit behind a defensive position), you can kill 1,000 zombies in ten days. A small group of survivors could clear an entire town's worth of zombies, put up a fence for the occasional stragglers, and not have to worry anymore.

You'd need Return of the Living Dead style zombies, which retained their intelligence and were nearly unkillable, to be an actual threat to humans.

 

[KOMega]

Maybe instead of reanimating the dead, it was some sort of rage virus from 28 days later.

Although if any zombie like threat happened, I think all the zombie media has prepared us enough that whatever signs of permanent infectious disease that turns people against each other in a feral frenzy would be quickly silenced, or at least well contained. Presuming buildings and roads don't start crumbling and catching on fire suddenly when zombies, if ever, come around.

 

[crazyarms33]

I don't much care. I live in the somewhat rural south and as such have owned a firearm since I was 6. I now have more than one as do my Dad and brother. I figure we would sit upstairs and have some target practice while eating sandwiches and watching TV. So long as we don't run out of ammo or water we should be good.

OT: Not bloody freaking likely.

 

[Aabglov]

-snip-

Why would anyone put 69 in such a roundabout but trivial way as their avatar?

Because it's AWESOME!

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

Zombies may "happen" but I don't see them starting the end of the world. Unless they're magic/bullshit Zombies, but in that case there's magic/bullshit, so were already doomed.

This is an excellent point. Im a biologist so I've done some research into this and have a few theories about how a zombie outbreak MIGHT work, and if it did whats the closest we can get to the movies.

Rabies is by far my favorite contender for a zombie virus. It has some gigantic flaws that totally negate its ability to spread like a zombie virus but its got a few of the key components in place.

1. Spreads via saliva.
2. Can cause irrational aggressive behavior.
3. Uses animals and humans as a medium.
4. Untreatable (almost) once symptoms occur.
5. Rabies can incubate for extreme lengths of time secretly, up to years in fact.
6. Targets the nervous system

However the reason rabies ISNT the zombie virus is:

1. Being irrational to the point of fear of water coupled with massive dehydration makes you less able to attack someone in a coordinated way.
2. Being violently unwell and feeling like total shit inhibits your ability to attack a person.
3. Once symptoms show death is usually pretty damn swift. A "zombie" has a 2-10 day lifespan once symptoms show.
4. Only in extreme cases does primary brain function fail utterly. Youre not mindlessly aggressive. Youre just delusional.
5. Most violent outbursts will be undirected. Its more akin to spasms. And having uncontroled spasms makes you even less dangerous to people unless they are actively trying to treat or hug you. Not to mention the mania is coupled with periods of lethargy where youre no threat at all to anyone.
6. If caught in the incubation period treatment is fairly straightforward.
7. We have vaccines for the damn thing.
8. A rabid person will probably be as likely to attack another rabid person as they will you.
9. Such a long incubation means treatment/execution for infected is going to be extremely easy.

Rabies is the closest you can get to a zombie outbreak. And it fails in at least 9 ways to being anything like a zombie outbreak. Bites are also just a very shitty transference method. Any zombie virus would need to go airborne to even pose a threat. Or waterborne.

Theres also a catch 22 in the psychology of a zombie. To show the rage and mindless aggression almost ALL social parts of the brain need to die. But now you cant act as a pack or identify friend from foe since these are coupled together. The zombies, with no way to coordinate or identify another zombie from a human and distinguish aggression from non aggression, would just devour eachother like the guy i posted said. Theres like a million biological barriers between zombies and reality im afraid :C

 

[Asita]

Reanimated zombies? Probably safe to say that's not happening. Some kind of infection that creates zombie-like symptoms? Much more plausible but still unlikely to ever reach pandemic levels. I mean for a zombie pandemic we'd be looking at a chemical cocktail that would be untreatable, unpreventable (barring avoidance), result in a deterioration of the victim's mental functions and/or greatly spike their aggression and most importantly not kill the victim. Your closest runner up is probably rabies which we vaccinate for, can treat if we catch it early enough, and which tends to be fatal mere days after the symptoms actually pop up.

 

[Terminate421]

Possiblity? Yes.

Probably? No.

I feel it's more of something that COULD happen, but not likely. It's not something I should be worried about as much as just know about when shit hits the fan.

 

[Kailow Krow]

Apocalypse? Maybe, probably not. Outbreak of zombie like? Maybe not like, degredation of all society, but some places out in the sticks of nowhereland might be affected. I think that'd be kind of a neat "just living with reality" sort of take on it, it's not like dc would crumble in a day, but even then somewhere and to some people even now it might as well be the apocalypse, there's all sorts of zombie fungai ants and weird bull shit, it's not soo much of a stretch actually; still a pretty big stretch. I dunno. Apocalypse? not.

 

[Little Woodsman]

We had one last week!
All of you who weren't paying attention should really thank those of us who got up and took care of it!

 

[Haakmed]

shambling rotting corpses? no! pumped up super pissed off roid raging speed freaks? Possible however less that 1% chance of ever happening.

 

[Anezay]

Probably not. If it's full on reincarnation, then no, that would never happen. If it's a rabies type disease then maybe, though the chances are 1 in billion. If it was to ever occur though the zombies would all be killed off quickly.

[link]http://www.cracked.com/article_18683_7-scientific-reasons-zombie-outbreak-would-fail-quickly.html[/link]

Am I late? In the interest of not killing all the fun, I too have a Cracked article.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-scientific-reasons-zombie-apocalypse-could-actually-happen.html

 

[mitchell271]

Do I think it will happen? No, and not just for the scientific reasoning behind the whole, "reanimation" issue.
Now, "Do I wish for a zombie apocalypse?" is a better question. [sub][sub][sub]To which I might answer yes.[/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[MHR]

I live in 'MERICA. That pretty much means a gun for every man woman and child. If the zombies were to strike they'd have a hell of a time of it.

And one crazy guy in Florida got high on bath salts and ate this hobo's face, it was all over the news and people were already locked and loaded. There's no way it's gonna sneak up on us.

Even if it did somehow break all physical barriers to being possible, it wouldn't mean the end of humanity. There are plenty of people on islands or in other protected areas to repopulate.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

It's highly unlikely in the conventional sense. Even if for whatever reason the dead were able to continue moving, atrophy has set in. You've got muscle degradation, rotting limbs: a pure recipe for a creature that can barely stand on its' own, let alone chase you down.

I honestly don't see how there could ever be a mass event involving the dead arising. Maybe one or two people in a lab after years of trial and error, but there's simply no science behind the dead coming back to life. Even if they did, what makes them crave human flesh? We could outrun them, heck you'd smell them coming a mile away, and even if a bite did turn the victim into an undead, it just seems like zombies are on the weakest end of the dangerous scale.

Seriously, I don't understand how we possibly couldn't outrun/outlast/overpower them if they should appear. Heck, they are probably so deteriorated that the soil over their casket will be their doom before they ever get the chance to stalk to the living.

 

[Olas]

I don't really see how a zombie infection could spread. It seems like the rate at which people can kill zombies is always way higher than the rate at which Zombies infect people. If everyone could just kill on average one zombie before becoming infected themselves the number of zombies would never increase, even if everyone just shot themselves before they turned that would work. If you kill the zombie that infected you AND shoot yourself before you turn, congratulations you just reduced the zombie population by 1. And in most fictional scenarios you see people gunning down zombies right and left and not even getting infected.

It seems like the only advantage zombies ever have over normal humans is large numbers, but it's never explained how they reach those numbers to begin with. You never see the actual spreading take place. It's always one zombie at first, then flash to 3 weeks later and everyone's a zombie. How did that happen?


It seems like the zombie outbreak scenario assumes 95% of people will just let zombies walk right up to them and infect them without doing anything about it, which I doubt. Once there's even a dozen or so zombies, news will get out about it fast and people will start fleeing the area as they bring in the SWAT to clear things up.

In other words the Zombie epidemic would be halted before it even begins.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

It's impossible, it simply cannot happen. Zombies are a biological impossibility.

To move about, a body needs muscles. Muscles are fuelled by blood carrying oxygen. Blood is moved around by a beating heart. Without a beating heart pumping blood, lungs transferring oxygen to the blood and muscles to move, a body will remain inanimate and cold. There can be no such thing as undead.

This is actually my biggest gripe with most science/virus created zombies. I have less issue with the demonic/dark forces powered undead. If it isn't explained from where an undead's animus comes from, I genuinely lose my ability to suspend disbelief, or care.

A living person could lose their mind and they become a mindless animal. That is in the realm of possibility though not really the same category as zombie apocalypse. Sorry to disappoint everyone with the bad news but no zombies are gonna get you.

 

[AuronFtw]

American and Russian militaries are both prepared to nuke any city where a potentially massive biological outbreak strikes (in their own countries), so chances are it would get nipped in the bud. Also requiring biting would make it impractical for overseas spreading.

All in all, zombie virus is a very inefficient/illogical one.

 

[The Selkie]

If it spread solely through bites from infected then it wouldn't be a problem - you can't puncture skin through leather with your teeth. Wear full motorcycle gear and you should be fine, but realistically even assuming zombies could move at full human speed, they're unarmed and working without tactics. It wouldn't spread far once police/military got involved.

 

[SweetShark]

The only way this possible could work, is the way the series "The Walking Dead" present:

Spoiler

You become a zombie a if you die with any kind of way, without damage the brain.
Even if you didn't get bitten, you will become a zombie....
If we think in the today standars every single day someone dies..........we are f*cked.

 

[Schyular Willis]

there will be a zombie apolcayles and your friends girlfriend is wrong making a plan is right warning don't have loud weapons man