A deeper understanding of Zombies

Some weeks ago we wrote about Will Smith's latest zombie movie. You might remember that I, little D., was quite confused about the logic of the zombie's behaviour. A few days ago we went book shopping in one of our favourite bookshops in London and we came across the philosophy section. We didn't look for something in particular, just scanned through the shelfs (which is the most risky way to spend money there...). T. found a book. It didn't look immediately inviting to me, but I had a closer look. And you would not believe what I found: Article 12 in the book is by Thomas W. Polger and has the title

Zombies Explained

How could we not buy it?! What an inviting title. I mean, who wants to read something about the foundation of quantum theory or naval law in the 19th century if you can do research on zombies. If we had known earlier...

I followed a link in a footnote of Polger's explanation and found a whole scientific journal volume on Zombies. The Journal of Consciousness Studies, vol. 2, issue 4 of 1995. Very promising titles again: The unimagined preposterousness of zombies [...maybe not so unimagined by some of us...], Varieties of zombiehood, You can't argue with a zombie [...who would have thought...], In defence of impenetrable zombies, Zombies and the Turing test [...whatever this is... but why not test a zombie, there are so many outside...], What zombies can't do [...well, here I could add something...], Why zombies won't stay dead and the most promising article title: Yes, we are zombies, but we can become conscious. (Some days ago we went to the ignobel prize show here in London, and I feel a tiny bit reminded of it.)

I must admit I am intrigued and though I could not access the articles online I ordered a second hand copy of the journal for 1.03 Pound. Lucky me. The copy has to be shipped over from the States, this might take a while. But I promise I will keep you posted!

But you don't have to wait for the serious research volume on consciousness. In the meantime, the wikipedia entry on zombies enlightens us further. Zombies have various kinds of impact, I learned.

The most common definition is: a zombie is a reanimated corpse. The stories of zombies originate in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Voodoo. According to their belief a dead person can be revived by a Voodoo sorcerer who keeps the zombies under control since they have no will of their own.

In 1982 the Canadian anthropologist and ethnobotanist Edmund Wade Davis traveled to Haiti and found out that a living person can be turned into a zombie. (Now we know what we always wanted to know: what an anthropologist and ethnobotanist does for a living.) To zombiefy someone you only have to add two 'special powders' to his/her blood stream. It is that easy. ;-) One powder's key ingredient is a near-lethal dose of tetrodotoxin, which is the same lethal toxin you can find in the Japanese fugu. According to Wade Davis, after such a dose a person can be alive in this state of near-death for several days, but remains conscious. But not enough, one has to add the second powder which takes the person's consciousness and put him/her in a zombie-like state where he/she seems to have no will of his/her own. You can find all this in Wade Davis' book 'The Serpent and the Rainbow', published 1985.

Stephen A. Haines from Ottawa in Canada, who reviewed Wade Davis' book at amazon.co.uk, gives us his opinion on zombification: "If the method of 'zombification' of malefactors seems extreme in our view, it may be simply because we hide our criminals away in concrete tombs at taxpayer's expense. ... To Davis, it's simply the quiet application of justice. Is this a technique we could apply in our own society? Probably not, since we don't possess the cultural background. But the rendering of justice at the local level for local offenses is surely something we might consider as a behavioural innovation." SURELY NOT.

But this still doesn't explain why a whole journal volume deals with zombies. Maybe we should not look for an explanation, maybe this is the wrong path, but it is so tempting. Going a bit deeper into it we find an article on philosophical zombies. Yes, philosophical zombies. The term was coined by David Chalmers. In philosophy of the mind, zombies are hypothetical persons who lack full consciousness. But they have the biology and behaviour of a normal human being. They are often used in thought experiments which make arguments against the identity of the mind or the brain. Fascinating.

Finally I don't want to conceal that there are zombie walks around the world. Zombie walks are gatherings of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Sometimes they are just a sort of surrealist performed art, sometimes they are part of a political protest. We didn't come across one so far but we will keep our eyes peeled.