Timing and Success

In case you have begun saving every paycheck in preparation of a house with compartments and loads of disinfectant, don’t worry so much. One of the aspects of evolution is that it takes a long, long time. This will never happen in our lifetimes. It will be thousands of years before this fungus is ready to attack humanity.

It is a bit of a worry; however, for those involved. Or is it? Jorge Alcocer, zombie theorist and survival expert, also put in a few words for the human reaction to the pandemic, discussed soon. This entire time, we have been assuming that the world consists of nothing but this fungus and your family. However, it is time to change all that, and look at how the world would react once this began.

The human condition is a powerful and complicated creature. It is difficult to predict on certain issues, but when it comes to our survival as a race, it is likely that we will be able to predict what humans will do; after all, our biological goal is to live long enough to reproduce, and our minds would never let us just end our race that easily. We would watch, we would predict, and we would fight back.

Jorge described the success rate of the zombies would look pretty good at first. The zombies would experience, according to Jorge, a logistic growth, in which their population takes off exponentially and then plateaus. The reason for this is because they are focused on infection, and will have strength in the numbers they will accrue.

http://www.math.andyou.com/content/04/01/images/mu_pe_04_01_021.png

On top of this, he believes that the government will be unresponsive for a few weeks or months, however long it takes them to locate the source of the fungus and gain information on how to properly fight back. During this time, society would be on the fritz.

During the time of low government, society would be on edge, looting and misunderstanding media signals. When the word “zombie” got out (not from the media, but likely from the internet), stealing would occur and people would begin preparing for the classical apocalypse. There would be a lot of unnecessary deaths due to stupidity and outrage.

http://crooksandliars.com/files/vfs/2010/09/looting_0.jpg

Now, for the moment you’ve been waiting for: why I call it the zombification pandemic. The term “zombie apocalypse” implies that the world would be near ending; the population reduced to mere crumbs.

As predicted by Jorge Alcocer and myself, the zombie apocalypse would hardly be an apocalypse at all. If the governments of the world can own nuclear arms, combat other armies, and spend billions of dollars on their militaries fighting off explosions, bullets, and nuclear arms, I think we could handle some spores and people that you can’t touch.

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01000/460-china-military_1000183c.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv_jQVSw558Nax3wZXwsPz0mUOPdlZDYkZ-OjITTAnAj87i-Nf-f_vH9haZfiNj7obsOAQEN3IL5tuUWoT-Hlh2YzYrlPMtWhkDbkCXluz5vt1yWu51O0zsugnCs7n0G66mV6sS0kL84E/s1600/Minigun+%25281%2529.jpg

http://cdn.breitbart.com/mediaserver/Breitbart/Big-Peace/2012/Russia/missile-defense.png

http://www.imgbase.info/images/safe-wallpapers/photography/miscellaneous/17975_miscellaneous_nuclear_explosion_explosion.jpg

This is not to mention another fungus that is being discovered: a fungus has been found that is infecting the Ophiocordyceps; in other words, a fungus in infecting the infecting fungus. It's very interesting, ecologically speaking. It is seen to make the Cordyceps infertile; up to only 7% successful reproduction rate. Although we may be able to use this, it would be far from a cure or weapon. It is simply an interesting idea on how more creatures will be attacking the fungus than just us.

The government would crush the "apocalypse," and it would not spread very far. Our military is simply too advanced. And that is why it is called the zombification pandemic: it is not an apocalypse, simply a deadly page in our history. At worst, stated Jorge, it would be similar to the Black Plague in that it took out 1/3 of the population of its infected region.
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Alcocer, Jorge A. "Pandemic Reactions." Personal interview. 16 Apr. 2013.

Dell'Amore, Christine. ""Zombie Ant" Fungus Under Attack-By Another Fungus."National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 04 May 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2013.