zombie apocalypse...is it posible???

[wakeboarder]

this is just one of the many crazy random thoughts that are in my head. im layin on the couch watching "Zombieland" cause i cant sleep. and im wondering if it is possible to have actual zombies? i know you wouldn't be "dead", but is it possible for a virus, disease, or illness to make you loose your friggin mind, forget everything and desire to feast on living human flesh? i think that it could be possible but highly unlikely.

[Pix]

i think that it could be possible but highly unlikely.

This, and so unlikely I won't ever prepare for it.

I'm prepared for disasters, riots, break ins, fires, even suddenly finding myself on the wrong side of the law. Of course I don't ever expect to suffer any of these things, I'm simply aware that it COULD conceivably happen, and it's better to "have it and not need it than need it and not have it." But I'm not going to bother to prepare for something like 28 Days Later as it seems as unlikely (and probably not much I could do about it) than if an asteroid were to crash into the Earth (actually, even the asteroid seems far more likely).

[Inchante]

I have heard of diseases one could get from "feasting on human flesh" or nerves, rather--Kuru--but none that would cause you to want to do so. Well, I guess in a roundabout way Jeffery Dahmer had a disease that made him want to eat human flesh, but that is certainly not even a common tendency among the psychopathic. So, while I'm not questioning that it could happen, I am willing to bet money that it never will.

[Bowyn Aerrow]

Animated dead tissues from a virus - impossible.

A rage-like infection like what we see in 28 days later - highly possible.

Two contenders:
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) AKA Mad Cow Disease.

It needs to mutate a bit more to become contagious enough to spread, further it has to specialize its attack more on higher brain function and leave the mobility areas of the brain alone.

However a list of its current symptoms:
Blurred vision (sometimes)
Changes in gait (walking)
Confusion, disorientation
Dementia that occurs over a few weeks or months
Hallucinations
Lack of coordination (for example, stumbling and falling)
Muscle stiffness
Muscle twitching
Myoclonic jerks or seizures
Nervous, jumpy feelings
Personality changes
Sleepiness
Speech impairment

Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/...000788.htm

Currently it is not very contagious from human to human, you can be bit by a person with the disease and not be infected. Eating the flesh of the infected on the other hand...



Rabies.

Rabies is the scariest one because it is highly contagious (through bites) and has been known to pass airborne under the right conditions. Its ability to target the higher brain functions in humans while leaving them mobile long enough to spread the disease makes it more of a risk than CJD.

On top of it, rabies causes the victim to experience extreme thirst enough to madden the patient to the point where they forget such things like 'human beings are not drinking fountains'.

The upside, is that by the time the patient gets to the point where they are ready to drink from other humans as though they are water fountains, high fever burns out the rest of the brain leaving the patient immobile enough to not be a serious threat.

Rabies makes for other interesting symptoms such as extreme photo-phobia (light sensitivity) So it could be more or less like the disease in "I am Legend".

Symptom of rabies:
slight or partial paralysis
cerebral dysfunction
anxiety
insomnia
confusion
agitation
abnormal behavior
paranoia
terror
hallucinations, progressing to delirium.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies

The only thing saving us here is that rabies is nearly always fatal, with only 6 known cases of untreated rabies recovering.

Either one of this diseases could mutate sufficiently to allow infected victims to walk about and spread the disease via bites.

Both causes dementia to the point where the patient will attack others. Both could have long enough life spans per patient for a patient to spread the disease to many others.

Lord help us if either one become airborne. There are no known recoveries from CJD, and only few recoveries from Rabies.

[East]

Zombie Apocalypse? Sure...It has already happened. The dead walk among us...most people just haven't noticed yet

[ToddYoung]

I recently read The Passage by Justin Cronin. A zombie apocalypse novel that's being made into a movie. It's the first in a trilogy, but it isn't short. I'm not a great fan of zombies, but as far as zombie books go, I don't suppose you could get much more realistic than this.

The movie trailer will be viewable here "soon".

[Genersis]

Possible?
Yes.(- reanimating the dead)

Likely?
No.
Not without human interference at least.

[jaxc]

well if you want to know just go here cracked.com/top 5 scientific reasons a zombie apocalypse could happen" very intresting list if i say so myself.

[wakeboarder]

http://www.cracked.com/article_15643_5-s...appen.html

[CellarDweller]

Zombies! I have a love/hate relationship with them! LOL

When I was young, I saw the original Night Of the Living Dead, and liked it. When the sequal, Dawn Of The Dead came out, I was about 10 and convinced my dad to take me to see it.

I was not prepared for the fact that the show I saw on TV was edited and, while scary, harmless, and the movie I was about to see was released without a rating because of all the gore and voilence. I had nightmares for about 2 weeks.

Now when a new zombie movie comes out, I have to see it, but I prepare for nightmares afterwards. lol

Walking Dead doesn't seem to affect me that way, I think because it's only about 45 minutes long without commercials.

Do I think a zombie apocolypse could happen? No, it just seems way too "out there" to happen.