An Apocalyptic World: Before and After?

Do you think there would be any survivors in a world like (the movie) I am Legend?


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LogicfromLogic

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So, I got around to thinking about all the movies coming out about a post apocalyptic world, (or the verge of one) and the populous is infected with some kind of zombie virus.

From the movie 'I am Legend' to 'World War Z', we have been plagued by movies theorizing our demise.

But the question is, could we actually survive this world? There is a vast over population in the world, and a virus would almost surly wipe out civilization. But there stands this:

The immune. How many would statistically be immune to such a horrible virus, and how many wouldn't be? And the life expectancy (adding in lack of food, power, shelter and places to hide depending on the virus), how long would someone live? and quality of life, would it be worth it?

My opinion:

No. I do not imagine any human being will have survived passed the first month of the outbreak. There is just too many humans and other creatures who could carry the virus to survive, and the stress of finding food and other needs for life while staying away from flesh eating zombies would be too much. I mean, looking up the estimated population of Earth, you are looking at well over seven billion people. throw just a handful of infected people in to the population, and it spells disaster. Since we have so many people here in the world, one person wouldn't be hard to transfer an awful disease to. Spreading from one person to the next (bacterial) and triple that if it is airborne, you've got a whole lot of walkers. I think if something like that were to shake the world, I think that it wouldn't last very long.
 
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Well, being the optimist that I am, I actually think it's possible; sure. However, I foresee a very real "survival of the fittest" scenario. I mean we'd be talking about a state of nature here. If there were to be a viral epidemic of continental proportions, governments would crumble within a fortnight and the laws of society would be meaningless. The strongest, both mentally and physically, will be the only ones capable of independent (or small group) survival.

It's not entirely impossible, though, that there would be some kind of continuity of government. I believe such measures have already been established for first world powers. It wouldn't take long for our brightest minds to be able to engineer a countering vaccine or anti-virus that would keep others from becoming infected, if not cure them.

So my bottom line: I think survival is totally possible. But only the strong, smart, and well-prepared will rise out of the ashes.
 
I wannnnnt to take back my vote and put it at NO SURVIVORS.

My reasoning being that, having taken a course in virology, viruses are adaptable organisms that not only change themselves for survival, but also.change their environment.

This is why a flu shot is essentially unnecessary. The flu vaccine is developed to ward against the most recent strain of a virus. This is why you may still contract the flu even though you may have had the flu shot. So knowing this, even if there were survivors who were immune, there's no saying that the virus can't mutate to infect the previously immune. [You should still take the shot, for your own health and the health of those around you)

If there were survivors who were resistant to all strains of the zombie virus, I feel that the human race would die out anyways. For the survival of any species, offspring must be made. In that kind of environment, humans would probably not be in a mental state to yield offspring or care for them. Also, a baby is immunocompromised, so few infants would survive in that environment rife with disease, not necessarily with the zombie viruseither.
 
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That depends on if the zombies are undead or viral. And what the zombies need to eat to survive. O_O Are their bodies decaying the moment the contract the virus? Will they stop eating humans and start eating animals if they run out of people? Will they start eating each other?


Zombie apocalypse used to be the scenario I feared the most, cause I thought for sure the entire human race would be wiped out. >> But I read a cool article that gave all these sciencey reasons why humans would out last zombies, and I wish I could find it. D:

One of the things it said was that zombies physically would only last until their bodies broke down and fell apart! Heat would make them decay faster, cold would make them slower. The forces of natural decay would not stop working on the human body just because they are a zombie. You'd just need to bunker down and avoid the initial chaos, and live long enough until the vast majority of zombies died of natural zombie causes.


I don't have high hopes for my own personal survival, but I know SOMEbody out there would survive!
 
Many zombie stories are misathropic. You've got a small, plucky group of determined survivors struggling against the unthinking, barely animate sheeple zombie hordes shuffling and sleepwalking through the world. I think the reason why there's always so few survivors in fiction is to continue to flatter the viewer/reader about how they're not some zombie, they're a resourceful and determined survivor in control of their life.

Personally I think that there would be more survivors than you usually see. Certainly not one guy surviving in the entirety of New York City. I don't think it would be easy or without loss, but I think that many people could and would survive and we would not go into I Am Legend mode.
 
Even providing there is no immunity, no nothing, I think there would be scattered survivors for at least months, if not years. Isolated places, like towns in Alaska where the only travel in or out is a plane that comes by once a week or once every two weeks, would be able to remain infection-free providing no one infected bothered to fly out there- and why would they? Some pacific islands, perhaps, that are rarely visited. North Korea, which can easily shut its borders and has the military capability of fending off fairly large numbers of zombies. Research stations in Antarctica. Scattered nomads/semi-nomads in places like Afghanistan and Mongolia. Aircraft carriers and subs out at sea, which can self-sustain for months on end.
Would it be enough to continue the human species beyond a handful of generations? Maybe not. But I do not see humanity going from here to dead in under a hundred years, no matter how infectious, lethal, or zombifying the disease is. We simply have too many far-flung populations that would continue to cling to life indefinitely.
 
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Really, it depends how the zombie virus spreads. In the Walking Dead universe, EVERYONE is infected, you just don't turn into a zombie until after you die. In most other universes, simply getting bitten means you're going to turn into a cannibal. There are also the possibilities of airborne viruses.

If it's a really contagious one, I would say that no, there wouldn't be survivors. There might be a few who are immune, but they won't last long unless they're strong, and prepared. Like my boyfriend, for example. :P He's pretty set for the apocalypse. We have lots of weapons here, phone books to use as shields to tape on our arms, survival equipment... He also navigates really well and knows how to fight. Hell, I even have a huge collection of empty baby food jars so we can use them to make Molotov cocktails. So he, and others like him, would be those who survive. Assuming they aren't doomed to turn into zombies...

Also, as long as the zombies aren't those ridiculously fast and/or strong kind, they could easily be controlled. They're slow, they're stupid, they can't swim, they can be burned... I don't see why we couldn't herd a bunch of them to the ocean to drown them. xD Or herd them to a place they could perish in a bon fire, lol. And if you cut off their jaws and arms, they can't hurt you. (That is, if the virus isn't the contagious sort.) You can use them as a way to blend in with the zombie crowds, like Mishone in Walking Dead does. Fooling these idiot zombies is easier than people think.

I dunno, I feel like if a person or people use their resources right and think quickly on their feet, they can learn to live in a post-apocolyptic world.