Philosophy Now Forum

Dien Ho asks if you’d be better off undead.

http://philosophynow.org/issues/96/What ... g_A_Zombie

Sorry, but the zombie stuff is stupid.

nothing, if you can surf...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHww_HJt1qk

-Imp

This article is a blatant rip-off of Scott Kenemore's Zen of Zombie. Even the wording the author uses is similar.

http://www.amazon.com/Zen-Zombie-Better ... 1602391874

From Dien Ho's article:

Zombie and Zen

In some respects, the idea that becoming a zombie is a bad thing borders on a platitude. Zombies wander around in constant hunger in a semi-decomposed state. Their actions are guided entirely by impulses. They seem to lack the complex cognition that’s critical for most of the activities we consider worthwhile – social interactions, intellectual pursuits, personal projects, etc. But in other respects, the life of a zombie has characteristics many of us strive mightily to achieve. Their lives are highly centralized and simplified, since their needs and wants often revolve around just a few things, like brains or human flesh. They are largely indifferent to pain and suffering. Short of severe head injuries, zombies enjoy a type of immortality. Zombies do not care about most of the pesky concerns that fill our daily lives: they do not care about the weather, their appearance, their social status, their retirement plan, their morning commute, and petty office politics. They are not concerned about the threat of terrorism, floods, earthquakes, and hurricanes. And they certainly do not become jealous, depressed, worrisome, or suffer the other anxieties that regularly plague our waking moments. Indeed, if we focus on just these qualities, the life of a zombie resembles the ideal state of a disciplined Zen Buddhist monk who has managed to let go of his earthly concerns.


From Scott Kenemore's The Zen of Zombie, page 10:

It is obvious to any close observer that zombies have benefited from a combination of carefully cultivated habits and tendencies in order to become the superior specimens that they are today. By identifying and emulating these habits, humans can enjoy many of the successes that zombies do. Zombies don't worry. Not about themselves. Not about others. Not about climate change. Nothing. Zombies have "enough" of what they need in life (with the exception of living brains). Yet they are, at the same time, "driven" with a passion and intensity that any CEO or motivational speaker would envy. Zombies don't stop. Zombies don't rest. And yet, zombies are at peace with this ceaselessness.

I've taken a brief peak at The Zen of Zombie and while it does share some similarities with the article, especially while presenting the possible benefits to being a zombie, they come to very different conclusions. Scott Kenemore argues the benefits of being a zombie all the way through and tells us that we should all strive to be more like them while Dien Ho argues that a zombie's life is not meaningful because they lack the complex cognition required for contemplating the reasons for their actions. Scott Kenemore says that zombie are completely free in that they are only restricted in a physical sense rather than by social and psychological pressures, but Ho would say that their life is ultimately not meaningful because they don't choose their actions in the sense that we typically understand choosing.