A Necro-Biological Explanation of the Fermi Paradox

[Umbran]

What product would that be?

Lacking a zombie upon which to do analysis, I couldn't tell you. The point is that there's plausible explanation for the observed state. Call it a "no-prize" explanation, if you will.

The point is that zomibes do not reproduce

Except for all those people who get bit, and turn into new zombies. Or, in the most popular version of the moment (The Walking Dead), the zombies who arise from folks who die of more natural causes.

In general, so long as the humans keep reproducing, and there's some available mode of new zombie creation, there'll always be some threat.

World War Z, for example, raises the point that zombies don't need to breathe air. So, those who fall or walk into the ocean can walk out some time later, on the same or another body of land, and cause further outbreaks.

 

[Scott DeWar]

No, the biggest flaw of most of them. . . . .edit . . . . .. But these days all the zombies are virus or disease based, and once you invoke that explanation, it all falls apart.

literally falls apart?

The zombies must get their energy of motion from *somewhere*. If it is from the flesh they eat, then they must digest and distribute that energy around the body. That implies some form of circulation, vital organs functioning, and so on. The thing is doing all the activity of a living thing, so it is a living thing, not dead. It may not feel pain, but it will still have other vulnerabilities of living things.

Zombinol is used to put someone under while awake on the operating table. I can't remember the movie that was based on real life, the serpent and the rainbow?

Oh, no, this one works okay - there are examples of self-limiting processes in nature and human experience - fermentation, for example, is self-limiting. Once the alcohol level gets high enough, the yeast are limited, and the process goes no further. So, for zombies, they rot to some degree, and then the products of the process then poison the things that make them rot, stopping the process.

Alfalfa grows for two years, producing a poison in the roots that prevents any new alfalfa from sprouting. They figured out a way to get past the poison about 5 years ago with a new strain. Is that a possible example of self limiting in nature?

 

[Umbran]

literally falls apart?

No. Figuratively, the chain of logic making the zombie plausible falls apart.

Zombinol is used to put someone under while awake on the operating table. I can't remember the movie that was based on real life, the serpent and the rainbow?

Yes. "Zombinol" is a fictional drug in the movie, "The Serpent and the Rainbow". But, that's a rather different form of zombie than is common in popular media today.

Alfalfa grows for two years, producing a poison in the roots that prevents any new alfalfa from sprouting. They figured out a way to get past the poison about 5 years ago with a new strain. Is that a possible example of self limiting in nature?

Yep, that would be another example.

 

[tomBitonti]

No, the biggest flaw of most of them is the thermodynamic impossibility of zombies as described. Supernatural zombies get around this by simply invoking magic. But these days all the zombies are virus or disease based, and once you invoke that explanation, it all falls apart.

This, raised to the 10'th power: Zombies should run out of energy quite quickly.

Plus, they should fail in other important regards: Literally nothing is running to keep up a normal metabolism. No removal of chemical waste, no flow to provide new fuel, nothing to regulate or dissipate heat build up. Nothing to bring immune agents to fight off infection. No nerve activity, so no senses, and no coordination of body activities. A zombie shouldn't be able to anything more than flail about in something approximating an epileptic fit.

Zombies, as depicted, are operating at quite a high level, nearly indistinguishable from a live organism.

There needs to be an alternate metabolism at work. Something locally self sufficient, dispensing with the usual whole body machinery of metabolism. Say, a virus that manufactures a dark energy catalyst and transports it to mitochondria.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Umbran]

There needs to be an alternate metabolism at work. Something locally self sufficient, dispensing with the usual whole body machinery of metabolism. Say, a virus that manufactures a dark energy catalyst and transports it to mitochondria.

aka "Magic!"

A virus, composed of normal matter, can only do what normal matter can do. Since the interactions between normal matter and dark energy/dark matter are of limited strength, this is still an implausible source of energy for the beastie. Sure, most of the world doesn't understand that, so maybe you can slip that one by some of the readers...

Edit: More importantly, though, if you did have a normal matter way to harness dark energy, the chances of it first being seen in the ready-made, operational metabolism of a zombie, and only there, is a bit far fetched. This works better in a "the magic returns" scenario, where we discover several such things come to light. Say, the Solar system periodically goes through regions of high dark energy density, and this energizes latent traits of organisms.

 

[Scott DeWar]

And thus the real truth of dark matter/energy that formed the universe.

 

[tomBitonti]

aka "Magic!"

A virus, composed of normal matter, can only do what normal matter can do. Since the interactions between normal matter and dark energy/dark matter are of limited strength, this is still an implausible source of energy for the beastie. Sure, most of the world doesn't understand that, so maybe you can slip that one by some of the readers...

Edit: More importantly, though, if you did have a normal matter way to harness dark energy, the chances of it first being seen in the ready-made, operational metabolism of a zombie, and only there, is a bit far fetched. This works better in a "the magic returns" scenario, where we discover several such things come to light. Say, the Solar system periodically goes through regions of high dark energy density, and this energizes latent traits of organisms.

Yeah. All made up and implausible. But, we are talking zombies, anyways. Dark energy for a sci-fi (or Dead Space) vibe; magic for other cases. Mostly, I think that "dark energy catalyst" sounds cool.

I do try to account for the implausibility by making it a catalyst. Then, only a very small effect is needed.

I like the idea of a transiting a region of high dark energy density. If periodic, or if the transit only ever happened in the distant past, there could be a latent biological ability to tap into the energy, which is largely degraded or removed, but which is still present in very rare organisms (say, a virus). If those preferred a host environment, they should select to modify their host to promote spreading. You would get zombie-ism and transmission as natural consequences.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Yeah. All made up and implausible. But, we are talking zombies, anyways. Dark energy for a sci-fi (or Dead Space) vibe; magic for other cases. Mostly, I think that "dark energy catalyst" sounds cool.

I do try to account for the implausibility by making it a catalyst. Then, only a very small effect is needed.

I like the idea of a transiting a region of high dark energy density. If periodic, or if the transit only ever happened in the distant past, there could be a latent biological ability to tap into the energy, which is largely degraded or removed, but which is still present in very rare organisms (say, a virus). If those preferred a host environment, they should select to modify their host to promote spreading. You would get zombie-ism and transmission as natural consequences.

Thx!

TomB

Or it's simply that some humans have the genetic trait that produces the "Dark Energy" enzym (if it's biological, isn't a catalyst called an enzym?), and some don't. So some mutate to zombies, others do not. Might remove the threat of infection, but not the threat of zombies ripping you apart.

 

[Scott DeWar]

Or it's simply that some humans have the genetic trait that produces the "Dark Energy" enzym (if it's biological, isn't a catalyst called an enzym?), and some don't. So some mutate to zombies, others do not. Might remove the threat of infection, but not the threat of zombies ripping you apart.

And if you have the genetic defect as well, that creates the enzyme, then that person would have a good chance of zombification

 

[Joker]

Well, you have different kind of zombies in fiction. Zombies that show raging humans like in 28 days later could maybe perhaps be possibly conceivable to happen. Maybe.