Resolved: the Zombie Apocalypse Will Happen

Thanks Con for a very capable rebuttal! Death: Con disputes the definition of death I am working with. One of the medical definitions of death of humans regards the brain as quoted: "Part (1) codifies the existing common law basis for determining death " total failure of the cardiorespiratory system. Part (2) extends the common law to include the new procedures for determination of death based upon irreversible loss of all brain functions." [1] Brain death results in the loss of conciousness, and sense of self. Everything that you identify as 'you' disappears once the brain dies, irrespective of whether or not the remainder of your body is still perfectly functioning or not. This is perfectly logical, one can have their heart stopped, kidneys removes, liver, limbs etc, and still be 'alive', however once the brain is removed, then you are quite clearly dead. Therefore I remain firm on the notion of a viral infection that takes over neurological functions once the brain dies (naturally or otherwise). The virus itself could (and likely will, being a virus that affects the brain) lead to brain death, and it's not a far stretch of imagination that a virus that transmits via biting would find it beneficial to kill off the host brain to drive the host to bite others with its own control. Therefore the virus I propose would indeed create a zombie, a dead person with a drive to reproduce (bite). However just because the person is dead doesn't mean the tissues the person is made of is dead, which I will argue later are necessarily at least in part alive. Biting: My pet cat was not most pleased by my participation in Pro's savage experiment, but nonetheless I do not see significant issue on the transmission of the disease via biting. Some of the deadliest and most persistent diseases known require sex or blood-blood contact, which is not ideal and yet they survive just fine, HIV is the only known pandemic, too. [2] Moreover the single most deadly disease to man, rabies, is exclusively transmitted via biting, the only disease known to have a 100% fatality rate.[3] Given that the effects of decomposition are not expected to be significant, it is reasonable to think that trust amongst fellow humans will result in many unsuspected zombies to have free reign to bite their victims. Moreover this effect will be much amplified in busy areas (trains, city centres, shopping malls, etc), where close contact is essentially mandatory. Decomposition: This is not necessarily a problem. I will freely grant that the lifespan of a zombified person will most certainly be much reduced over an uninfected person, but not enough to mean a zombie attack will fail. I've already mentioned that zombies will possess greater physical durability with the lack of pain perception, therefore are already advantaged in direct conflict. I also find my Pro's assertion that decomposing bodies will explode. I would like to ask, where is her evidence of this? Indeed the only exploding animals I can find require a little help from their fellow humans (see video). Cold: There is no reason to assume that zombies do not have a working metabolism (and therefore achieve homeostasis), indeed a working metabolism is necessary of zombies are ever to even move or retain posture. Therefore zombies should have a degree of tolerance to cold temperatures. Furthermore, cold also affects uninfected humans too, making them sluggish, and therefore easier pickings for the infected zombies. Predators: As argued in mathematical modelling, a zombie apocalypse would be expected to occur over an exceptionally rapid period of time, within a matter of just days, or a couple of weeks. umber of predators in the environment today that target humans is astonishingly small, even if zombies made for an easy target it would take significant time for predators to latch onto this and take advantage of it (requires a degree if evolution). Therefore remains a weak argument against zombies. Revival: Revival, or 'resurrection', without any assistance is already well documented (cases). When you factor in a virus that specifically drives brain death and neurological control, this becomes significantly more plausible. Remember that the virus released would be genetically engineered by humans, and we already have astonishing versatility in bioengineering today and this is I only going to increase over the next century. Household Guns & Economy Pro raises an interesting point regarding household ins in the states, but do also understand that other countries have more densely populated and do not permit guns (European Countries, East Asia), which is a much more ideal 'breeding ground' for zombies. That is not to say it would not cripple the states as well, remember that largely wiping out any major populated country will have devastating economical knock on effects. Even an epidemic that affects the less wealthy nations such as those in Africa will cripple the states as food and oil imports would effectively shut down, international trade would also be severely restricted in attempts to contain any zombie migration (which is unlikely to be effective). This crippling of trade will result in food prices in first world nations that import most their food (such as the UK) will increase to starvation inducing levels, and countries that do produce enough food internally will have much-reduced flexibility and contingency. Pro asserts that power disruptions, water shortages would not significantly impact a nation, but this is flat out false, anything that cripples a countries infrastructure will reduce that nations ability to weather an epidemic, as the economy will halt, starvation, sky high prices, poor communication, organisation will occur - effectively leaving a state in anarchy. [4] Conclusion: I have pretty much underlined my case, and demonstrated half of Con's rebuttals to be irrelevant to the case at have, the zombie apocalypse will indeed be a real one! References: [1] http://pntb.org... [2] http://perspectivesinmedicine.org... [3] http://www.wadsworth.org... [4] http://www.livescience.com...