If I start it in NYC, it’s everywhere from Michigan to Atlanta within a quarter of an hour. There will be all kinds of transportation advances once someone makes a zombie in the lab, assuming they can contain it.
I hope Smith? made a better job of the zombie modelling than his original 2009 paper. As I wrote at the time , there’s no point doing that sort of thing unless you take it seriously.
I agree that they did a bad job but caution about mixing geek with nerd. The problem with taking fantasy seriously is that it breaks, like when you calculate the power required to bank the Millennium Falcon. There’s always the question of how far do you take things before step on the intended fantasy, like how Star Wars battles are about air and sea combat in a fantasy space setting with fantasy machines having nothing to do with actual space combat or real machines.
The nature of how zombies come to be and specific rules governing the properties of zombies are fantasy, modeling those things is the same as applying physics to fantasy machines. Zombies only die when you destroy their brain because of the rule of cool (if the guy’s previous model didn’t account for that he sucks at zombie lore, but his bite/kill ratio thing imply he at least fixed that obvious element). Whether the dead rise because magic or a virus makes as much difference as saying hyperdrive or warpdrive for FTL (reminder, an alcubierre drive has no more basis in reality than a zombie virus, lol negative mass matter), in both cases the rule is that it already affects everyone, either the juju got everyone or everyone’s already a carrier for the virus (this model is dumb because a zombie virus spread only by zombies starting with zombie patent 0 would burn itself out since even if you use fast zombies they’d get quarantined before it goes beyond whatever metropolis it started with since they move on foot).
A serious virus model would have to account for how carriers of the zombie virus spreads. Talking about zombie virus carriers is like talking about how tie fighters wouldn’t make sounds in space, totally misses the point, tie fighters make noises because they’re JU-87’s and the sound is part of their effect, everyone starts with the virus/juju because zombies represent how the dead outnumber the living (or any other undesirable thing you’re hopelessly outnumbered by, Idiocracy was a zombie movie) and you can’t escape death (or other undesirable thing, like r selection).
What’s important is that everyone realizes Idiocracy was a zombie movie.
[…] Zombie Sim […]
Posted on March 3rd, 2015 at 12:40 pm | QuoteWell that is the primary area of infection.
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Posted on March 3rd, 2015 at 12:48 pm | Quote>not starting with Detroit
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admin Reply:
March 3rd, 2015 at 5:02 pm
No comment.
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[…] Source: Outside In […]
Posted on March 3rd, 2015 at 5:12 pm | QuoteNot quite as fun as Plague Inc.
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Posted on March 4th, 2015 at 12:36 am | QuoteIt’s red in my hometown. Did we win something?
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Posted on March 4th, 2015 at 1:43 am | QuoteIf I start it in NYC, it’s everywhere from Michigan to Atlanta within a quarter of an hour. There will be all kinds of transportation advances once someone makes a zombie in the lab, assuming they can contain it.
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admin Reply:
March 4th, 2015 at 1:44 pm
Not quite Gibson’s BAMA (Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis), but close.
(The Gibson ref. isn’t entirely designed to wind you up — only partly.)
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I hope Smith? made a better job of the zombie modelling than his original 2009 paper. As I wrote at the time , there’s no point doing that sort of thing unless you take it seriously.
[Reply]
admin Reply:
March 4th, 2015 at 10:14 pm
He still has a Zombie Calvinism thing going on.
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Aeroguy Reply:
March 5th, 2015 at 12:34 am
I agree that they did a bad job but caution about mixing geek with nerd. The problem with taking fantasy seriously is that it breaks, like when you calculate the power required to bank the Millennium Falcon. There’s always the question of how far do you take things before step on the intended fantasy, like how Star Wars battles are about air and sea combat in a fantasy space setting with fantasy machines having nothing to do with actual space combat or real machines.
The nature of how zombies come to be and specific rules governing the properties of zombies are fantasy, modeling those things is the same as applying physics to fantasy machines. Zombies only die when you destroy their brain because of the rule of cool (if the guy’s previous model didn’t account for that he sucks at zombie lore, but his bite/kill ratio thing imply he at least fixed that obvious element). Whether the dead rise because magic or a virus makes as much difference as saying hyperdrive or warpdrive for FTL (reminder, an alcubierre drive has no more basis in reality than a zombie virus, lol negative mass matter), in both cases the rule is that it already affects everyone, either the juju got everyone or everyone’s already a carrier for the virus (this model is dumb because a zombie virus spread only by zombies starting with zombie patent 0 would burn itself out since even if you use fast zombies they’d get quarantined before it goes beyond whatever metropolis it started with since they move on foot).
A serious virus model would have to account for how carriers of the zombie virus spreads. Talking about zombie virus carriers is like talking about how tie fighters wouldn’t make sounds in space, totally misses the point, tie fighters make noises because they’re JU-87’s and the sound is part of their effect, everyone starts with the virus/juju because zombies represent how the dead outnumber the living (or any other undesirable thing you’re hopelessly outnumbered by, Idiocracy was a zombie movie) and you can’t escape death (or other undesirable thing, like r selection).
What’s important is that everyone realizes Idiocracy was a zombie movie.
[Reply]
Lucian Reply:
March 5th, 2015 at 12:53 am
Idiocracy was a documentary.
[Reply]