Do we have a definitive answer? v.AliveOrUndead?

[trubkir]

So since I have a test on Monday I have been thinking of nothing else but this alive vs dead thread. Since CJ at the Dunbar Apartments heard Pinstripes say "Leave her" only one conclusion can be made in my opinion. Pinstripes is based on a human and the only way humans can vocalize is to move air over vocal chords. This air movement is on an exhalation phase of respiration. If the thing breathes it is alive. I think the ones underwater surface briefly to get air like any other air breathing creature that happens to be aquatic.

[Osiris]

So since I have a test on Monday I have been thinking of nothing else but this alive vs dead thread. Since CJ at the Dunbar Apartments heard Pinstripes say "Leave her" only one conclusion can be made in my opinion. Pinstripes is based on a human and the only way humans can vocalize is to move air over vocal chords. This air movement is on an exhalation phase of respiration. If the thing breathes it is alive. I think the ones underwater surface briefly to get air like any other air breathing creature that happens to be aquatic.

Just because a thing can move its diaphram to work its lungs does NOT mean it is alive. The dead have walked, eaten, moaned and 'sensed' our presence all through the history of zombie films/legend/stories/whatever. The ability to work their lungs is moan/talk/order a chilidog does not make them alive.

[Tielurrdee]

My question is if they eat and eat and eat where's all zeepoop

[yarri]

Just because a thing can move its diaphram to work its lungs does NOT mean it is alive. The dead have walked, eaten, moaned and 'sensed' our presence all through the history of zombie films/legend/stories/whatever. The ability to work their lungs is moan/talk/order a chilidog does not make them alive.

dead things don't sleep, or make breath in cold air. I can't remember the exact time stop but it was in the Season 1 New Arrivals.

Dead things also do not adapt to chemicals like chloroform there is no need to adapt to a chemical when you're dead.

[Osiris]

dead things don't sleep, or make breath in cold air. I can't remember the exact time stop but it was in the Season 1 New Arrivals.

Dead things also do not adapt to chemicals like chloroform there is no need to adapt to a chemical when you're dead.

I have two problems with that.

1. They are moving, often at an unnatural speed--as unnatural as any dead thing moving--and as we know, moving parts generate heat. That's just basic science at work there. So there is a possibility, however slight it may be, that their bodies generate a small amount of heat and any heat produced would have an affect on the air within the lung cavities. We're also talking zombies here, so it's not like there is conclusive science about how their bodies behave. Every author takes their own liberties, so who is to say for certain. If we're going to argue that dead things don't do any of the above, we're also going to argue that there are no such things as zombies. We've got to roll with the punches at some point and if we're drawing lines in the sand and base it in hard science, we have to stop talking about zombies entirely.

2. There is also no need to eat when you're dead, learn how to use tools, stand up and chase the living... but we've seen all that before as well.

[zedhead]

on the one hand zombies need food, which means that they are dependant on certain bodily functions, on another burt shoots the pinstriped one twice center of mass without incident, so my theory is that they are able to utilize their digestive system, but not their circulatory, maybe making them more dependant on it?

[wooly]

We have enough story clues to determine that the creatures (1) breathe (2) have brain function (3) have some degree of functional circulation, implying a beating heart (4) retain some of the same metabolic functions as humans

Michael's anesthesia experiments during the GPS tagging confirm all of the above. For gas anesthesia to work you have to breathe it in, transfer it to circulation via gas exchange in the lungs, transfer the drug to the brain & body via the circulation. The creatures rapidly adapted to the drug which indicates some hepatic or renal function (again proving circulation as a corollary) as drugs are typically metabolized and excreted via a combination of those two systems.

Therefore, the creatures are not "zombies" in the traditional dead sense of the word. They are alive in some sense, just not normal humans.

This works from a physiology standpoint.

[7oddisdead]

to this..ill throw the "invasion of the body snatchers" theory.

What if the host is dead...but the virus is living..all the above could be explained

[Robzombie]

Higher brain functions are kaput, but those whos brain are wired differently, such as Ink who is a schizophrenic are affected differently and apparently have maintained some order of higher brain function (ha can plan and set traps, he can talk, set fires, has extrodinary reflexes (he caught an arrow and avoided a bullet more than once!)). If the host were dead, utterly and completly, than pretty much all the zombies would be the same but those like Ink are different because some original brain function has remained.

[riskbreaker23]

I voted Alive only because of an "incubation" period that the George Romero Zombie virus seems to have that WA lacks. During this incubation period, the carrier physically dies. WA has no such transition, it's most of the time instant. However, I put an addendum; I do believe that the carrier of the WA disease, virus, mutation, what have you, is in fact dead. In my opinion it comes with the fact that whatever mutation or effect the virus... whatever we call it (seriously KC this is getting difficult to talk about! More DETAILS causes the carrier to be gone. There's no conciousness and to me that is REALLY what being alive is. That person is gone forever. Dead.

Though I voted for alive, I just have to add my two cents that in the end they are in fact "D-E-D... DEAD!" (points if you get the reference).