Zombie-Mania

The word "zombie" has three possible definitions in the context of computing:

* An insecure computer that's compromised by a worm or Trojan horse and used in either distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks or spamming sessions. Compromised computers usually have a bot installed that listens to commands on IRC channels; when a command is given, all the compromised computers begin the DDoS attack or spam propagation. This protects the author of the spam/DDoS attack, since those attacks can only be traced back to the compromised computer, not the author.

This usage derives from the typical meaning of "zombie" as an animated corpse with no independent will that mindlessly follows the commands of a controller. "Zombied" computers, under the control of some remote cracker or hacker, execute DDoS or spamming sessions with no input from the legitimate owner/user.
* A child process that has finished its task but hasn't been terminated by its parent process. In other words, it's part of a program (or maybe even an entire program) that is hanging or locked up.

* A very old, very out-of-date web site, usually abandoned by the owner. This is archaic usage; such sites are more typically referred to as "orphans" or "ghost sites".

A zombie is purportedly a dead person whose body has been reanimated. Stories of zombies originated in the Afro-Caribbean spiritual belief system of Vodoun (Voodoo), where zombies are humans who have had their "Ti Bon Ange" (Creole from the French "petit bon ange", or "little good angel") or soul stolen by supernatural means or shamanic medicine, and who thus lack free will and are forced to work as uncomplaining slaves for a "zombie master", typically on plantations.

Other more macabre versions of zombies have become a staple of modern horror fiction, where they are brought back from the dead by supernatural or scientific means, and eat the flesh of the living. They have very limited intelligence, but may not be under anyone's direct control.

In philosophy of mind, zombies are hypothetical persons who lack full consciousness but behave otherwise just like other people. They are referred to as philosophical zombies or "p-zombies".

~~Zombies in voodoo
According to the tenets of Vodoun, a dead person can be revived by a bokor or Voodoo sorcerer. Zombies remain under the control of the bokor since they have no will of their own. "Zombi" is also another name of the voodoo snake god Damballah Wedo, of Niger-Congo origin; it is akin to the Kongo word nzambi, which means "god." There also exists within the voudon tradition the zombi astral which is a human soul that is captured by a bokor and used to enhance the bokor's power.

In 1937, while researching folklore in Haiti, Zora Neale Hurston encountered the case of Felicia Felix-Mentor, who had died and been buried in 1907 at the age of 29. Villagers believed they saw Felicia wandering the streets in a daze thirty years after her death, as well as claiming the same with several other people. Hurston pursued rumors that the affected persons were given powerful drugs, but she was unable to locate individuals willing to offer much information. She wrote:

"What is more, if science ever gets to the bottom of Vodou in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than gestures of ceremony." [1]

Several decades later, Wade Davis, a Canadian ethnobotanist, presented a pharmacological case for zombies in two books, The Serpent and the Rainbow (1985) and Passage of Darkness: The Ethnobiology of the Haitian Zombie (1988). Davis travelled to Haiti in 1982 and, as a result of his investigations, claimed that a living person can be turned into a zombie by two special powders being entered into the blood stream (usually via a wound). The first, coup de poudre (French: 'powder strike'), induced a 'death-like' state because of tetrodotoxin (TTX), its key ingredient. Tetrodotoxin is the same lethal toxin found in the Japanese delicacy fugu, or pufferfish. At near-lethal doses (LD50 of 1mg), it can leave a person in a state of near-death for several days, while the person continues to be conscious. The second powder, dissociative hallucinogens like datura, put the person in a zombie-like state where they seem to have no will of their own. Davis also popularized the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was claimed to have succumbed to this practice. There remains considerable skepticism about Davis's claims,[1] and opinions remain divided as to the veracity of his work,[citation needed] although there is wide recognition among the Haitian people of the existence of the "zombi drug". The vodou religion being somewhat secretive in its practices and codes, it can be very difficult for a foreign scientist to validate or invalidate such claims.

Others have discussed the contribution of the victim's own belief-system, possibly leading to compliance with the attacker's will, causing psychogenic ("quasi-hysterical") amnesia, catatonia, or other psychological disorders, which are later misinterpreted as a return from the dead. Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing further highlighted the link between social and cultural expectations and compulsion, in the context of schizophrenia and other mental illness, suggesting that schizogenesis may account for some of the psychological aspects of zombification.

~~~Zombies in folklore
In the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed that the souls of the dead could return to earth and haunt the living. The belief in revenants (someone who has returned from the dead) are well documented by contemporary European writers of the time. According to the Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were[2], particularly in France during the Middle Ages, the revenant rises from the dead usually to avenge some crime committed against the entity, most likely a murder. The revenant usually took on the form of an emaciated corpse or skeletal human figure, and wandered around graveyards at night. The "draugr" of medieval Norse mythology were also believed to be the corpses of warriors returned from the dead to attack the living. The zombie appears in several other cultures worldwide, including China, Japan, the Pacific, India, and the Native Americans.

The Epic of Gilgamesh of ancient Sumer includes a mention of zombies. Ishtar, in the fury of vengeance says:

Father give me the Bull of Heaven,
So he can kill Gilgamesh in his dwelling.
If you do not give me the Bull of Heaven,
I will knock down the Gates of the Netherworld,
I will smash the doorposts, and leave the doors flat down,
and will let the dead go up to eat the living!
And the dead will outnumber the living!
It will be awful!

~~Zombies in literature and fiction
Frontispiece of Zombi du grand Pérou
Frontispiece of Zombi du grand Pérou

Main articles: Zombies in literature and fiction and List of video games featuring zombies

Probably the first reference in Western literature to a zombie was in "Pierre-Corneille" (actually Paul-Alexis) Blessebois' satirical French novel from 1697, Le Zombi du grand Pérou ("The Zombie of the great Peru")[3]

The first use cited by the on-line French dictionary, the Tresor de la Langue Francaise, is a mention a hundred years later, in 1797, by Moreau de Saint-Méry in Description topographique et politique de la partie espagnole de l'isle Saint-Domingue (a book on what would become Haiti). Moreau says that it is a creole word meaning "spirit, ghost" (specifically, in French, a revenant, that is, a "returning" person). He also mentions that, in one place on the island, slaves buried their dead despite being forbidden to do so, and that floods sometimes brought them back to the surface. One can readily imagine that this fact might have influenced later ideas of zombies as actual revived corpses.

Neither of these sources, however, seems to have had an enduring effect on Western literature. The first book to expose more recent western culture to the concept of the zombie was The Magic Island by W.B. Seabrook in 1929.

Information on zombies and their relevance to popular culture may be found in the article for Zombies in literature and fiction.

~~~Zombies in social activism
A participant in a Zombie Walk event in Calgary
A participant in a Zombie Walk event in Calgary

Some zombie fans continue the George Romero tradition of using zombies as a social commentary. Organized zombie themed flash mobs or Zombie Walks, which are primarily promoted through word of mouth, are regularly staged all over the world.[citation needed] Usually they are arranged as a sort of surrealist performance art but they are occasionally put on as part of a unique political protest such as on Buy Nothing Day, November 25, 2006, in Montreal, a crowd of Zombies invaded the downtown core to take part in a "Shopping Spree of the Dead"[4] and ridicule the compulsive aspect of Christmas shopping.

Other organizations such as Zombie Squad use the genre as a way to promote disaster preparedness and to encourage horror fans to become involved in their community, through volunteering or hosting zombie themed charity fund raisers.

The zombie-themed episode of the Showtime series Masters of Horror entitled Homecoming was hailed by many as an original and innovative use of zombies in a work of political and social commentary.[5]