It's funny you said that because I was just recently thinking about how people might react to zombies in real life. Rather than panicking they figure out how to deal with them and they become less dangerous than a bear or a moose. People who live in places where animals like that can wander into their yard quickly learn how to deal with them as a matter of routine and go to work and school without trouble. A scenario played out in my head in which, for instance, you might go out to work, and if there was a zombie by your car you just trash its head with a machete or something, get in your car, and go to work.

Humans are definitely adaptable and there have been times in history and prehistory where very bad plagues were overcome. The black plague had several large epidemic events over centuries which at times wiped out a significant portion of the population. There's also smallpox, etc. I remember seeing a documentary which said it seemed that sometime before our ancestors left Africa, something happened to drastically reduce population until there were fewer humans then than there are orangutans today. That makes me hopeful for the orangutans.

Less than a couple hundred years ago (and often before) people died much more often especially due to disease. People were surrounded by death - a good example is during the US Civil War - and just had no other choice but to adjust. The response of some of the characters to the zombie plague is kind of a reminder that people in developed countries are kind of spoiled in this regard and therefore not used to death on that kind of scale, where everyone loses someone.

It might be interesting to do research into human behavior during catastrophic events. In some cases, for instance a blackout in the northeast in 2003, people just got on and acted normal. No one went any more crazy in NYC than they usually are . Looting can happen when there is no access to get things the normal way, but so can sharing of the "loot" and an otherwise normal attitude toward fellow humans.

 

I don't get any ads on this site, and hardly any ads anywhere. I use Adblock. You can download it at cnet.com.

 

All good points but I'm surprised no one mentioned that there are new walkers being created all the time, it's not just a matter of killing them all off. Sure after a certain amount of time their massive numbers would decrease but they will still always be a threat, especially since everyone turns whether it be from a bite or dies from natural causes, accidents etc. You'll still have to deal this constant threat all the time.

 

Yeah, blocking ads would do it, but I try to let ads live on sites where they behave. I ended up just not allowing that one domain in noscript so I am still supporting the site through their other ads.