Revenant
A zombie is a kind of undead, or figuratively, a very apathetic person.
Zombies in Science
(The following is a hypothetical explanation of the potential for a "zombie" to exist. No scientific documents exist proving the hypothesis to be factual. It has been heavily discussed in the non-fiction text "Zombie Survival Guide".)
There is a belief that scenarios similar to those found in horror films may actually be achieved in reality. Some scientific merit has been given to the idea that a violent, flesh-craving zombie can be created from a virus called Solanum, a Latin word used by Jan Vanderhaven who first discussed this theory. These details have been heavily discussed in the novel "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks; visit http://www.zombiesurvivalguide.com for more information.
Solanum travels through the human bloodstream from its initial entry point to the brain. Though no one is certain exactly how, Solanum uses the cells of the frontal lobe to replicate itself, destroying said cells while doing so. During that time bodily functions desist. By stopping the heart the infected human is rendered "dead". The brain remains alive but inactive while the virus mutates the cells of the brain into a completely new organ; one which functions independantly from the need for oxygen. Then the undead brain can utilize the human body without being dependant on it. Once mutuation completes the new "brain" reanimates the body. Some bodily functions continue, others operate differently, and the rest cease. The new organism created is a "zombie".
- Timetable for the conversion process of an infected human:
- Hour 1: Pain and discoloration (brown and purple) of point of infection. Immediate clotting of wound (provided wound is cause of infection)
- Hour 5: Fever (99-103 degrees F), chill, dementia, vomiting, actue joint pain.
- Hour 8: Numbed limbs, increated fever (103 - 106 degrees F), increased dementia, loss of muscle control.
- Hour 11: Paralysis of lower body, overall numbness, slowed heartbeat.
- Hour 16: Coma
- Hour 20: Brain and heart activity stopped.
- Hour 23: Reanimation.
Without going into extensive detail on how the newly formed Zombie functions, scientific theory suggests the following details that contradict what is often presented in film and fiction:
- A zombie functions entirely on newly formed instinct. It does not hunt human flesh for hunger or out of personal desire, but out of a very basic need to procreate by spreading the virus.
- A zombie would not possess super-human capabilities. Though its natural senses (sight, smell, and hearing) would be enhanced, this is simply because it would be relying on all of them EQUALLY, unlike humans who rely mostly on sight.
Other than these enhanced abilities, a zombie would be forced to rely solely on the physical capabilities of the human body it was mutated from.
- A zombie lacks emotion and upper brain function. It has the intellegence of an insect. It possesses no ability to process logic or solve problems. It lacks motor skill and coordination, unable to perform simple tasks like climbing a ladder.
- As brain fuction is ceased, a zombie would not retain memories of its human life. Ergo, if a zombie would not be inclined to return to its home or place of work, nor would it be able to operate machinery it operated as a human. It will wander aimlessly without any sort of intentional search pattern until it has a visual lock on human prey.
Zombies in Vodun
According to the tenets of Vodun (voodoo), a dead person can be revived by a houngan or mambo. After resurrection, it has no will of its own, but remains under the control of the person who performed the ritual. Such resurrected dead are "zombies".
A more skeptical take is that a zombie is a living person who has never died, but is under the influence of powerful drugs. Wade Davis, an American botanist, was the main person to present a pharmacological case for zombies in two books - The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis travelled to Haiti in 1982 and as a result of his investigations claimed that zombies could be made by the ingestion of two special powders. The first, coupe poudre, induced a 'death-like' state, the key ingredient of which was the pufferfish (Tetraodontiformes) toxin tetrodotoxin (TTX). The second powder of dissociative hallucinogens held the person in a will-less zombie state. There was considerable scepticism to Davis's claims, he was widely accused of fraud and there has been no final statement as to the veracity of his findings.
Others claim zombies are sufferers of various psychiatric disorders such as catatonic schizophrenia whose symptoms are misinterpreted as a return from the dead.
Zombies in fiction
Zombies are regularly encountered in horror- and fantasy-themed fiction, films, video games and role-playing games. They are typically depicted as mindless, shambling, decaying corpses with a hunger for human flesh, most famously in Night of the Living Dead. However, some films (such as 28 Days Later) feature living but otherwise zombie-like humans, usually as the result of disease.
The Resident Evil series of video games makes particular use of zombies.
Other causes of zombies in fiction include radiation acting on the brains of the dead, evil magic or Vodun, the use of drugs, substitution of the brain for some sinister artifact, or, in perhaps the most famous case, a jolt of electricity.
Zombies in Law
While zombies do not usually appear in lawbooks and few laws exist to regualte them, in some places, such as Jamaica, they are considered a public nusiance.
In New Orleans it is still possible to arrest a zombie for premeditated somnambulism.
Zombies in philosophy
In philosophy, "zombie" is a technical term to describe a hypothetical person who only appears to think and feel, as opposed to a "real" person who actually does think and feel. In other words, they are missing "qualia", or the subjective character of experience. Philosophical zombies are mainly used in arguments about the philosophy of mind, particularly functionalism.
A behavioral zombie is externally and behaviorally identical with humans and therefore we might project a mind or consciousness onto this creature which may not be conscious.
A neurological zombie has the same brain as humans and is identical to us, but is unconscious and has no subjective experience. Since such a being is physically identical to a human, any difference must be related to dualism (split between mind and body).
See also Zimboe.
See also Dualism
Other uses of the word "Zombie"
Referenced By
Undead
|
