Okay, I know that parasitic zombies have been discussed in other threads, but I did a search and couldn't find a thread dedicated to them. My purpose for this thread is to discuss the what capabilities a zombie caused by a parasite would possess. I'm talking about a parasite that lives in the brain and hijacks control of the body through there, eating/deactivating the rest of the brain. Here are my guesses:
Decay: Yes. We're talking about human flesh. It will decay. Eventaully.
Drowning: My guess is no, but it depends on the parasite in the brain. If it can survive in water, the zombie will be floating around. Don't think a parasite will have enough control over the body to make it swim, but it will be alive. If not, zombies can drown.
Burning: It will kill them, but not until the parasite is completely burned. Until then, they will be flaming zombies. FIRE=BAD
Starving: If they don't find people/bodies to eat, yes...eventually. We're talking months. If the zombie can't find new material to eat, the parasite will eat the zombie from the inside out, speeding the decay.
Flesh/Brains: They will eat it because they need whatever nutrients.
Speed/Coordination: They will most likely start at near-human speed/coordination, and slow down as time goes on and more of the brain is destroyed.
Just my two cents, what do y'all think?
it's not entirely without precedent:
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=547
there's slime mold/fungus or something similar that takes control of insects too, il try and find a reference
here it is [not for the squeamish!]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuopJYLBvrI
The idea of a zombie parasite does exist in nature, although it only affects ants. There's a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis that infects ants and causes them to go to a favorable location to die. Once the ant is dead, it's body serves as a fertilizer for the fungus to reproduce (read more here).
However, this is extremely simple in comparison to making a human a zombie. While something that makes humans die in a particular place is conceivable, an actual controlling parasite for humans seems far less likely. First off, if it were actually directing the actions of and extremely complicated host, the parasite would need to fully interlace itself with the host's motor control functions and sensory inputs, all of which are located throughout the brain. Then the parasite would require a significant level of intelligence to know how to direct the host in the meaningful manner that zombies display. Most organisms understandably only have the brainpower to direct their own functions. To integrate with and control the nervous system of a creature hundreds of times larger requires vastly more intelligence than we have ever seen in nature. It seems more likely a parasite would simply feed off the brain, causing a slow loss of reasoning and motor skills, similar to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. But this would kill the host fairly quickly with very little time to be a zombie.
Now, let's say there is a parasite capable of living off of and controlling the brain. The host's bodily functions would have to be maintained, otherwise the host would simply die, possibly taking the parasite with it. As a result, any actions that would kill a human would also kill the "zombie". For example, going into water would deprive the host of oxygen, killing the host.
Overall, a controlling parasite seems unlikely, but considering the real world example, I wouldn't call it impossible. They just might not be zombies in the traditional sense.
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Keep Your Head. Remove Thiers.
The idea of a zombie parasite does exist in nature, although it only affects ants. There's a fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis that infects ants and causes them to go to a favorable location to die. Once the ant is dead, it's body serves as a fertilizer for the fungus to reproduce (read more here).
However, this is extremely simple in comparison to making a human a zombie. While something that makes humans die in a particular place is conceivable, an actual controlling parasite for humans seems far less likely. First off, if it were actually directing the actions of and extremely complicated host, the parasite would need to fully interlace itself with the host's motor control functions and sensory inputs, all of which are located throughout the brain. Then the parasite would require a significant level of intelligence to know how to direct the host in the meaningful manner that zombies display. Most organisms understandably only have the brainpower to direct their own functions. To integrate with and control the nervous system of a creature hundreds of times larger requires vastly more intelligence than we have ever seen in nature. It seems more likely a parasite would simply feed off the brain, causing a slow loss of reasoning and motor skills, similar to Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. But this would kill the host fairly quickly with very little time to be a zombie.
Now, let's say there is a parasite capable of living off of and controlling the brain. The host's bodily functions would have to be maintained, otherwise the host would simply die, possibly taking the parasite with it. As a result, any actions that would kill a human would also kill the "zombie". For example, going into water would deprive the host of oxygen, killing the host.
Overall, a controlling parasite seems unlikely, but considering the real world example, I wouldn't call it impossible. They just might not be zombies in the traditional sense.
also check out the zombie snail this sounds more resident evil-ish http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWB_COSUXMw&feature=fvw
call me criptangel......... shot gun 400$......shell 10$........destroyed zombies.......priceless
I am strongly opposed to this idea as if the Zombie is not living (in the sense we are) then it would not be able to move. We need to respire (breath) to create enough energy to move, so the flesh won't decay as long as the human is alive and when the human dies the parasite won't be able to make it move.
Ummm i always thought the skull was fairly water proof..... or do you get a head full of water everytime you swim? Also swimming involves less coordination than walking does. (Insert previous argument about resperation etc in here)
Most parasites would be dead once they reach 60°C
I disagree with the time period put forward (as i like some form of argument rather than just a statement) but the parasite eating the zed once it stops getting food i agree with.
I doubt it as it goes against survival logic. If you have a nice warm place with a steady food supply (if it could tap into and take nutrients from the blood, as blood going to the brain is rich in glucose) you wouldn't want to kill and eat it if you didn't have too.
See above post and this also goes against your own statement of not being able to swim.
Member # 3014
Eliot said a naughty word!
Ummm i always thought the skull was fairly water proof..... or do you get a head full of water everytime you swim? Also swimming involves less coordination than walking does. (Insert previous argument about resperation etc in here)
How do you figure that swimming involved less coordination than walking? My example would be toddlers. Swimming seems mostly learned to me. The skull being waterproof thing was a pwn. And something else I just thought of was that the brain is mostly submerged anyway, so the parasite would have to be able to survive in water...FAIL!
The swimming, like the speed thing, would probably change. Probably should have said that. I was gearing that post more towards the holdout on an island people. But I guess a zombie could just, immediately after turning, jump in the water and chase a surfer?
Okay, now that I've recovered from the epic beatdown a little bit, i'm going to try to answer some of this.