We are all familiar with our zombies caused by viruses, parasites, bacterium and a plethora of
other ones ranging from aliens to black majic.
The only one problem with many of these is they are too outlandish to happen or would result in a walking lump of meat with eat going through it's head.
The contending that avirus or parasite will cause zombies is valid. But on a large scale this infection wouldn't get past the point that the military gets called in for a few simple facts.
1)Viruses are not the rapidly multiplying machines of death we envision. It would take upwards of a day at best for a person to have any symptoms. The same goes for parasites.
2)A virus or parasite is a small organism that is programed to ensure the survival of it's species by reproducing and taking on new hosts. A zombie is a means o doing that. There have been cases of parasites in ants that cause it to sit on the tips of leaves so it gets eaten by it's main objective. Cattle. However these would result in very simple behavior like increased aggression, the munchies ect. As a fact Viruses and parasites are only capable of rewiring the system in a way that would result in at best (28 week later zombies) while still a problem they could be easily exterminated and bitten people quarantined.
3)The zombie is still a living breathing human! It can be killed by a chest shot that damages internal organs. If circulatory or respiratory systems are compromised it will be at worst 15 minutes before it is capable of not so much more than twitching. If the digestive system is compromised it has 2 weeks at most. If the brain or spinal column at damaged the result would be instant death.
Remember the zombie is still a biological human. All of our bodily functions primarily muscle movement require cellular respiration. For this to happen the individual cells need oxygen and carbohydrates like a car needs air and fuel both of the came chemical compositions.. Trying to make a cell operate without these basics is like running a car without gas it will not work. The disease in control of these cells or infecting these cells also cannot operate without this as it too is a cell.
The result is ALL zombies except supernatural ones can be killed is similar fassions to normal humans. Ie they can bleed to death, starve to death, freeze to death, be burned to death, crushed to death, DEHYDRATE to death and shot to death in places besides the head.
Now we have the bad news. =(
Nano technology is not new to most people. The basis is small robots that are the size of a molecule that can perform many functions and tasks including soon to come brain surgery great.
But like all technology people can't resist using it to destroy things. As technology gets more advanced so does it's dangerousness. In this case zombies.
The permits of nanite induced zombieism is that they exist in the brain and bodily fluids. It can therefore be transmitted by blood and saliva. A bite or fluid that enters blood stream/mucous membrane could result in a transfer of 1 nanite into your bloodstream. Once in the brain it reproduces and takes over the frontal lobe. This part of the brain is responsible for decision making,purpose and our conscience as we know it! Once this part of the brain is rewired by the nanites it can commence a program similar to this. Destroy previous conscience and changes purpose to a sole task. It diverts the task at hand to finding and biting humans AS well as finding food and hydration to ensure survival of host. An essential part of a major outbreak if it is going to get beyond the edge of the city. However one major function would be lost in doing this. Mainly memory as the previous conscience was destroyed hereby neutralizing memory.
The final result is a zombie that can run and function in the same dexterity, logic, problem solving and survival instinct as a regular human. They would be able to climb ladders, open doors, sneak up on humans, find humans more intelligently and worst of all move with agility.
Against these our only defence is our memory. We know how to fortify, set traps, remember previous problems and reuse skills.
Moral educate yourself, have a plan, don't get bitten and don't have a nightmare.
One small flaw with your theory, how would the 1 Nanite reproduce? We are talking about a machine here. If it were to theoretically reproduce it would need raw materials not found in the human body. the only type of thing that could do what you suggest is an enhanced biocontaminating cynobacteria, it grows very fast and could take over the body before the host shows any signs or symptoms. Also it would have to reproduce not in the brain but the mucus membranes throughout the body, making it transferable through saliva and blood. It would also theoretically need to harness all the preexisting systems in the body. I.E respiratory, nervous, circulatory, to gain control of the body it cant totally take over with out them.
Staying a step ahead of the hordes of brain-eaters, one bullet at a time...
We cannot be certain what the nanites are capable of so I would agree with you that it needs to be able to self reproduce which is essential. Again this is a new and emerging technology the capabilities of which we cannot predict in years to come.
For the sake of argument we we will say that
1) nanites can reproduce.
2) In taking over the purpose abilities of the brain it is essentially like hijacking an airplane. Everything is normal. All that is different is someone is telling the pilot what to do.
BTW: Have you read prey?
Sadly no, I have not read Prey.
O.k. so if nanites could reproduce wouldn't that alter the way of fighting them? An EMP would kill them all off in your system, and, assuming they didnt have a mutual destruction protocol, that would cure you. So it would be more of a race to overload the nanites than to kill off all the hosts of a disease.
Staying a step ahead of the hordes of brain-eaters, one bullet at a time...
Even if they had a mutual destruction protocol, an EMP wouldn't give them time to kill you. Now, maybe they could replace part of an artery with nanites or something and when you overload them you die, but that would be pretty unlikely. On the other hand, this entire thing is unlikely, so who am I to talk? Finally, even if they did have a sort of mutual destruction thing set up, you might actually fuse the nanites together if you have a powerful enough EMP (the electronics short circuit and heat up a lot), so you'd survive.
nice thoughts Kildar! I would say that the only thing I disagree with is the ability to create a mutual destruction protocol. In order to take over the brain they would have to be able to connect to the nervous system electrically if they were to keep a certain amount of energy stored in them an EMP might not kill them quickly enough to stop them from frying the brain.
Staying a step ahead of the hordes of brain-eaters, one bullet at a time...
There is the problem that the nanites connecting to gray matter rewire the brain. This would result in death, seisures or massive brain damage.
One thing for sure is that the person would never be the same or dead.
Nice idea with EMP though.
Directing this at number two in your list, parasites. What's truly disturbing is how many different parasites exist and have evolved to target certain hosts or "prey". Your example with ants, there are several parasites that target ants alone; many other organisms such as cockroachs, snails, grasshoppers, caterpillars, birds, all targeted by different parasites. Another brutal example, the parasitic wasp.
Essentially they "sting" their prey, injecting eggs into caterpillars, the host is now a womb for the eggs. When the larvae have developed, they start to eat their way out of the host, releasing chemicals that paralyze the caterpillar as well as infecting the caterpillars brain. It will protect the larvae until is starves to death.
Pretty incredible and with these parasites already existing in nature, how can we so quickly rule out the danger of such an organism attacking us? Since most of what we preconceive over a "possible zombie outbreak" is based mostly on "maybe's" and "what if's", is it not possible for a parasite to evolve and target our complicated systems?
Look at Toxoplamsa Gondii for example, they live in the guts of cats, shedding their eggs to be picked up by rats and other prey of the feline. Studies have shown that rats infected with toxoplasma act mostly the same as any other rat would accept for subtle changes in behavior, they are more likely to get themselves killed. Now step back for a second and listen to this... it's estimated that 3 billion people (close to half the world) is infected with Toxoplasma Gondii. As complicated of a species that we are, who's to say that the parasite could not evolve over time in our systems? Is that possible?
I could only see there being variable cases of it at a time, it's not as if all the parasites are somehow united and will all "wake up" and take control of our body.
I could go on for an unlimited amount of time so I'll stop there.
Food for thought.
Gather. Evacuate. Survive.
You know what would be funny? Zombie virus as a latent STD. You could catch it at any point like herpes, aids or say HPV but it stays latent for really long periods of time. This is the only way I could see a zombie infection being launched. Hint hint evil governments world wide.
Or a latent bio-terrorism virus... our government needs us... we pay taxes. XD
Gather. Evacuate. Survive.