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wyldeman007
Student
Registered: 06/03/06
Posts: 309
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Last seen: 10 months, 25 days
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Hypothetical zombie
#8690653 - 07/27/08 11:03 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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In Hollywood, zombies of the big screen are undead human creatures that elude explanation. Over the years, pseudo scientific conjectures fail to provide sound explanations of said zombies. Not very surprising! What I want to explore is a possible avenue to a sound postulate for the zombie condition that parallels the movies. How does one approach the undead state?
I know of some parasites that take control of the host's body via the nervous system. What kind of biological changes would have to occur in order to induce a zombie state. I'm aware that Jeffery Dahmer "experimented" in order to achieve this. For the sake of civility, lets start with mice.
My question is: how would one dispatch consciousness, whilst allowing all other autonomous functions to continue uninterrupted? Probably not a virus, maybe a prion? Keep in mind this is hypothetical.
-------------------- "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins
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DieCommie
Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: wyldeman007]
#8690825 - 07/27/08 11:33 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Have you looked up the stuff about zombies in hatian/voodoo culture? Thats probably the closest Ive heard of anything remotely scientific pertaining to zombies.
Supposedly they have drugs that do crazy shit such as inducing death like states... I dont know. I bet somebody here does
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Seuss
Error: divide byzero
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: DieCommie]
#8691289 - 07/28/08 04:26 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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> Supposedly they have drugs that do crazy shit such as inducing death like states...
I think they use tetrodotoxin.
-------------------- Just another spore in the wind.
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wyldeman007
Student
Registered: 06/03/06
Posts: 309
Loc: Los Angeles, CA
Last seen: 10 months, 25 days
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: Seuss]
#8694511 - 07/28/08 09:03 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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If you use a combination of tetrodotoxin and Datura stramonium plant it puts you into a zombie state, according to wikipedia. The non-fiction work of "The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis" tells of an induced zombification.
-------------------- "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins
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sherm
sherman
Registered: 10/02/03
Posts: 20,498
Loc: Euthanasia
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: wyldeman007]
#8694584 - 07/28/08 09:15 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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next we gotta figure out how to make them eat people
-------------------- shroomery. not even once.
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Hematite
Newbee
Registered: 05/04/07
Posts: 156
Loc: Wisconsin
Last seen: 11 years, 4 months
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: wyldeman007]
#8694624 - 07/28/08 09:22 PM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
wyldeman007 said: My question is: how would one dispatch consciousness, whilst allowing all other autonomous functions to continue uninterrupted?
Depends on the person, but televised golf and the olympics might be a good place to start.
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zorbman
blarrr
Registered: 06/04/04
Posts: 5,952
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: Seuss]
#8696363 - 07/29/08 08:22 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
Seuss said: > Supposedly they have drugs that do crazy shit such as inducing death like states...
I think they use tetrodotoxin.
I thought it was trioxin.
A good dose of ambien should do the trick.
-------------------- “The crisis takes a much longer time coming than you think, and then it happens much faster than you would have thought.” -- Rudiger Dornbusch
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deCypher
Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: wyldeman007]
#8696667 - 07/29/08 10:02 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
wyldeman007 said: If you use a combination of tetrodotoxin and Datura stramonium plant it puts you into a zombie state, according to wikipedia. The non-fiction work of "The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis" tells of an induced zombification.
Right on. The tetrodotoxin paralyzes the subject into a state of perceived death, and then the subject is buried for three days, usually incurring brain damage due to oxygen deprivation during this time. After that, they're dug up and given a massive dose of Datura Stramonium, which by taking their minds into the dream world leaves their brain-stem personality susceptible to orders from a dominant personality (the zombie master). Clairvius Narcisse is reputed to be a man who escaped years later after being turned into a zombie this way.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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badchad
Mad Scientist
Registered: 03/02/05
Posts: 13,377
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Re: Hypothetical zombie [Re: wyldeman007]
#8696682 - 07/29/08 10:06 AM (15 years, 7 months ago) |
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Quote:
wyldeman007 said: My question is: how would one dispatch consciousness, whilst allowing all other autonomous functions to continue uninterrupted? Probably not a virus, maybe a prion? Keep in mind this is hypothetical.
In a very basic sense, the body will preserve essential autonomous functions over others in order to survive.
Ever drank so much you completely blacked out (even though you were up walking, moving and interacting with others?). High dose benzo's poduce a similar state.
Probably a good place to start.
-------------------- ...the whole experience is (and is as) a profound piece of knowledge. It is an indellible experience; it is forever known. I have known myself in a way I doubt I would have ever occurred except as it did. Smith, P. Bull. Menninger Clinic (1959) 23:20-27; p. 27. ...most subjects find the experience valuable, some find it frightening, and many say that is it uniquely lovely. Osmond, H. Annals, NY Acad Science (1957) 66:418-434; p.436
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