From The Walking Dead to The Last Of Us, zombie apocalypses have been staple features of science fiction blockbusters for years.
But what would happen if a zombie takeover happened in the real world?
In a new study, researchers at Aalto University set out to answer this question – with terrifying results.
Their simulations suggest that if a single zombie appeared in Helsinki, there would be just seven hours to completely quarantine the capital – or kill the zombies.
Otherwise, zombies would ‘inevitably overrun the country’, the team says.
In the study, the team set out to investigate how a zombie plague would spread through Finland.
The research expanded on traditional models by adding a simulation of people and zombies moving around in Finland – both within, and between cities.
This allowed the team to simulate things like quarantining an infected region, or the difference between the zombie plague starting in a densely populated city or much sparser area.
However, estimating some of the parameters was a particular challenge, according to Professor Lauri Viitasaari, who was in charge of the mathematical model.
‘What’s the right probability for a human winning an encounter with a zombie?’ she said.
‘The problem is that we’re walking blind here, because real data on such questions is severely limited.’
The model revealed that, should a plague break out, it would likely spread extremely quickly.
In their basic model, a single outbreak in Helsinki would take just seven hours to spread across the whole city.
‘I shouldn’t have found it surprising, but I was surprised at how quickly we have to react to keep our population alive,’ said Professor Pauliina Ilmonen, who led the study.
‘It made me think about moral issues like the rights of individuals versus the rights of a population.’
While the project is light-hearted, the researchers say the findings could offer serious insights into how we could contain future disease outbreaks.
‘The zombie plague simulation offers a way to explore the effects of different interventions and consider them in the context of diseases with different features, such as how quickly they spread or how severe they are,’ the team wrote in a statement.
‘Because it simulates individuals’ actions, it can also be used to test how disinformation would affect the spread of an epidemic (eg, by having some “zombie deniers” ignore warnings).’
Beyond Finland, the model could be adapted to simulate outbreaks in other countries, the researchers say.
It could also be used to investigate other things that spread like a disease, including rumours or disinformation, they added.
RELATED ARTICLES
- EU conservative leaders Meet in Romania for Reelection and Victory lap
- Russia-Ukraine War: Total West Hysteria, The Great Reset and the Coming Apocalypse
- A New Trend in 2021: Now we're Being Invaded by Aliens
- China now scams Finland, sends them Faulty Masks 'Unfit for Hospital Use'
- Denmark and Norway close borders for everyone but 'asylum seekers'
Loading ...
