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-- The best question a student has ever asked me (Cyborgs and zombies inside)

The best question a student has ever asked me (Cyborgs and zombies inside)

Me: "All right lads, class is over. Anything else you want to ask before you go home?"
Student #1: "Me, me, me! What happens if a zombie bites a cyborg?"
Me: "It's quite... wait, what?!"
Student #1: "What would prevail? Their cyborg side or their zombie side?"
Me: "You mean like... a zomborg!?"
Student #2: "How does that even work? Cyborgs aren't alive, they can't undie!"
Student #3: "They require living verbs in Japanese though, don't they?"
Me: "They do, yeah, but it's Japan!"
Student #1: "But what would a zomborg be like?!"

I said I would do some research and give him his answer next week. So, CORe, what say you? What would make a zomborg possible, and what would it most likely be like?

I don't know if it's an answer to -your- question, but to the student: the zombie bite wouldn't infect a cyborg

the only thing that would make a "zomborg" would be malware or a computer virus making it act like one

I guess the comic/movie "Virus" is something along those lines

quote:

Originally posted by Redd I don't know if it's an answer to -your- question, but to the student: the zombie bite wouldn't infect a cyborg

Yeah, that's the problem I see with his idea... how would physical damage inflicted to a cyborg cause it to become a zombie? So I agree with you that only malware could do the job, but I don't see how a zombie could install any piece of software in a cyborg

quote:

Originally posted by Redd I guess the comic/movie "Virus" is something along those lines

Really? Will check it out, thanks!

In most cases the zombie virus wouldn't be able to takeover the cyborg depending on how cyborgish it is. For example it seems as though zombies do require some sortof brain function and if basic brain functions were either digital or digitally enhanced then the zomborg would not be able to move.

so if Robocops brain was somehow infected, it would work. The zombie would have to bite through his helmet. Or I guess bite his lip or something - if the flesh in his face is connected with bloodstream to his brain

I agree with Spyshell, a Cyborg can have a human brain, so it depends which parts of the Cyborg still are human.
But what would happen if a Borg (Star Trek) would have been bitten by a zombie? The brain is controlled by machine, but can a zombie still mess with it?

Let's assume that the cyborg in question has a brain which is symbiotic with a separate computer, controlling the machinery plugged into her body. Since the computer rely on data from the brain synapses in order to function, infected synapses would probably cause the system to crash, perhaps leaving the host dead.

Though I could be wrong about this; nothing can be proven until we actually acquire some experimental data. That would require us to in the first place have:

• Neurosymbiotic cyborgs. Linking brains to computers is a technology we've been developing for quite some time, though mostly to halt the effects of various diseases and physical handicaps, rather than to enhance physiological abilities.
  
• "Zombie" viruses. I myself find the idea of our brains being infected in a way, so that we turn into carnivorous beasts, quite ridiculous. In worst case, such infections would probably give us chronic seizures, but not something as specific as making us mindless brain hunters.
  

What kind of cyborg are we talking about? A Terminator type cyborg or a pure half-human half-robot being?

Use it as computer science learning moment if it's not blocked

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_(computer_science)

You're teaching your kids the right stuff Lira. Nice work!

Thanks, Tangil

I really don't know what kind of cyborg he was talking about, Tyler: I first assumed it was a purely robotic one, but this wouldn't make any sense... so I guess you guys are right - the cyborg must be running on some sort of wetware for this to work as Psyshell and Redd pointed out.

And, indeed, PointPi, it would be great if we could run an experiment in a controllable environment to get this answer - but then there's an ethical problem: If this cyborg is part human, would it have the same right as a proper human being, or would it be just like a robot? In the former case, I find it unlikely that we'd be able to experiment freely with it, so we'd have to wait for a zombie outbreak to happen naturally so we can see how it affects the cyborg and what the effects are

And, Trance-MB, no idea.

(Haha, and IGK, the internet doesn't always work in the classroom )

quote:

Originally posted by Lira but then there's an ethical problem: If this cyborg is part human, would it have the same right as a proper human being, or would it be just like a robot?

If the cyborg is part human, then it then it should have the same rights as everyone else. It shouldn't have half the rights the "proper" human beings have.

I think it's universally accepted in the scientific community that the mind is what defines a person, and the mind is located in the brain. As long as said cyborg has full control of his brain, or in other words only has cybernetic appendages, then that cyborg qualifies as a human being and falls under any governing convention regarding human rights.
On the other hand, if the cyborg only has human parts added to an artificial central processing unit or a logic board, in a manner where they can be seen as devices, then it is a computer, and has no human rights, even though it may employ a brain as a device.
Harvesting the computing power and memory powers of a real brain will be a feat that will change the face of humanity for good.
Hopefully Hollywood will have made enough films warning of the dangers that may arise, before the technology allows us such a conquest :P

edit: wrote virtually instead of universally

All depends if we are talking about a cybernetic brain that makes someone a cyborg, it doesn't seem like pathogens could interfere with an artificial brain. Plus it would lead me to believe there would be some nanomachines in the bloodstream to combat disease...just saying.

Anyone Ghost In The Shell fans hurrr?

quote:

Originally posted by Syntonic All depends if we are talking about a cybernetic brain that makes someone a cyborg, it doesn't seem like pathogens could interfere with an artificial brain. Plus it would lead me to believe there would be some nanomachines in the bloodstream to combat disease...just saying. Anyone Ghost In The Shell fans hurrr?

Your argument supposes that zombiefication only can happen through an infectious agent, and when we are dealing with fiction, or parafiction, or metafiction or what the fuck the correct term would be, then we must be open to all possibilities, including a proverbial deus ex machina, and if I'm not mistaken, the first zombies, by the definition flesh-hungry undead, was summoned by the goddess Ishtar in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
If indeed there ever is a situation where a deity has awoken the undead AND we have computer brains, I think we're already too fucked to care about the faith of some fuckbots.

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