The Head crabs likely gain control by piercing the skull, their teeth sinking into the brain at least partially. Physical contact with the Brain should be all that's required to set up any sort of cognitive control.

I was under the impression that the Flood attacked, infected, and then 'synchronized' with it's 'host' and overrode the mind to gain control, then forcibly growing it's form until it reached the desired state.

In any case, the Flood's history is that it was created as a fine dust, before infecting a non-hostile creature. Rather than becoming the creature, the Flood rather uses it as a more permanent host, reproducing itself and spreading itself from there.

As for the Head Crabs, after a quick look at the Half life Wiki, there are a few conclusions. While the Headcrab controls and feeds off it's hosts' brain, the headcrab can and may evolve into a final form, which is capable of producing more headcrabs.

Following the standard 'web-of-life' theory, the home planet of these headcrabs could possibly be adapted to accommodate them; for example, their primary food source could reproduce at a very quick rate. Also, their profile refers to them as omnivores, so there's more variety o choose.

It was also theorized that the Headcrabs were created specifically for biological warfare, which could explain their advanced biomechanisms and their abundance.

Explaining snoop like this is fun :3

"I don't see why anyone would want to create something THAT freaky and out of control, even if it was for biological warfare......(chills) "

-_^? Really?

Super-destructive self-replicating organism capable of rapid and effective transmission, to be released onto a system where such destruction and annihilation is required.

Seems legit.

Parasites would screw us over, no doubt. Humans, despite their intelligence, are insufferably stupid when it comes to matters like these. Some idiots are probably going to spread it, most likely cults and fanatics, like supremacists trying to 'purify' the world or some trash.

If the world does end, my reaction would depend.

-Some environmental catastrophe: Let it come. I'll burn with the rest.
-Attacked by anything: I'm no fighter, but Imma fight. Humans may deserve to be wiped from the planet, but unless they have a totally legit reason, they can all go to Firestorm. Without any good, actual reasons, no other life form has the right to judge our race fit to die.

That goes for any Zombies or whatever Slag the universe wants to throw at us.

Okay, based on dead island they are corpses which are infected with a *(check edit) which when the person dies(natural causes, loss of blood, exposed cranium,shock) which will regenerate some tissue, as long as it's connected to the body(Amputies not allowed). Due to some tissue being more sensitve to healing, brain cells get revied in a different way. As long as it's not to brain damaged to ife suport vegitive state, they will be revived.

If ones crippled before death, it will be based on how severe. So it will go from not 100% fit, but In a workable order, to completly crippled and can't walk. they would crawl.

Amputies don't know how to use it, so they will walk normally, but due to that, even with prophetics, will try to walk normally, but will stumble. it can't learn, so it will repeatedly try.

It is airborne, and can't be spread via bites.

The bactirium will reactivate primal insticts via stimuim(Walking, melee weps(apparently due to instict), mating, and eating). They cannot remember anything or any learned reactions(Driving using guns)as it needs memories.

Eating. It is designed to only really do the important things, eat, sleep,excreet mate. As long as the former is okay, and they eaten they will be docile, unless provoked to reactions. However, they will need to eat. They are technically a species of their own and will eat the most widely and nutrious availible creatures, humans. They will act aggressivley when hungry.

They do not need certain things, like to really speak communicate, or really need most things, like the heart.

They are not really deformed, unless the previous state was. They don't really feel pain due to the nerves, and will not feel their body exerting itself making it more like Ronald Niedermann from The Millenium Trilogy. So they will try more harder. They have a faster healign regeneration factor, and aswell as this, can heal minor wounds and most stab or gunshorsts, as ling as ut's not in a sentisive spot. If its brain was eposed and died because of that, it will be a zombie, but weaker due to that weakness, so they would easily get killed with a shot the the brain, or a bird(lol).

Shock attacks if sestroying the body brutally, will work, similar with heavy burns. Can't live without body and vice versa.

Will continue.

EDIT:

Okay,how about more in line of a paracitic microscopic celled creature. Which may be similar in for with the bactieria, except for it moreor it being based on sentient cells.

So like the flood, this cell can control the body, and reactivate some parts of the brain. But can't be really seen, (like bacteria and viruses), and is microscopic. The differences with some of the body parts.

By species, I mean, not the exact same human. More like in the same genus. They don't consider anoter zombie a human. Liek in the walking dead.

And also, the bacteria/virus/paracitic cell idea was supposed to be a goverment WMD. Developed to revive soilders, they will basically kill, and due to it being airborne, can make others join the ranks, similar to the headcrabs, basically, a stronger, invurnable, beast that can invade a city and take down everything.

I also added some more things I've forgotten.

And that is why you must destroy the brain :D

Zombrex, it can save lives (phenontran dance)

Let's talk about the definition of apocalypse.
*Ahem*

~A prophetic revelation
~A new beginning
~A total and utterly destructive end to the world.

Which of these should I be inclined to believe?
I could care less now, all I know is that I'm going to be partying on the 21st. Have fun while you can!

Been playing too much DevSur1 and 2...

Too many end of the world games these days!

The end of the world seems very interesting to many people, i just don't understand why people are getting hyped over the end of the world :|
Just look at Shin Megami Tensei for example, almost everything in it has to be the end of the world or something.

Zombies? meh, zombies don't exist, cannibal does.

Watched 2012? In real armageddon, nobody survives.

Mayans? A group of douchebags who forgot the next calender.

Scientist? Their 'theory' couldn't be proved without practice.

Nostradamus? I watched stars and they're not shouting that it's going to end soon.

Nobody knows when the end of the world be, because the future will only happen if we do it (refrain to #115 :P)

This guy didn't read.

Apparently it was the end of a cycle on their calendar and they thought "Eh, we probably won't use this thing anymore by that time, we'll use something better" and they just didn't do another one.

I hope something happens though. Like a double rainbow or something.

EDITTY EDIT EDIT: To people talking about teh bacteriaz, there is a type of bacteria that can take over a rats brain/something like that and make it get eaten by a cat, because a cat's intestines are the best place for that bacteria to multiply.

^

This guy doesn't read. HAHAHA.

BTW, December 21 is my brother's birthday ;_;

I believe that I will be dead before the world ends.........

Hypothetically Sev, something could.

The brain operates via a nerve network inside the cranium, which 'communictaes' to the rest of the organism via electrical impulses.

If something could, and were to 'piggback' on the nerves, it could potentially alter the signals, if not absorbing the original while sending out another.

Control established.

Obviously, the extent of the control would not be complete unless the whole brain was influenced. Still, control over key sections of the brain could drastically alter a person's actions. Removal of the section that controls your ability to rationalize, you act based on what you think when you think it. Control over the bits that control your body itself, and you're stuck in a body that moves on it's own.

Synthetic, perhaps not yet. However, biological adaptations could certainly do it. Alhough, said organisms would probably have to be incredibly small...and work as a hive mind to achieve anything.

W/e, totally possibly imo, but not now. Not with Humans of the moment.

I can't wait for 21, i realllly want to see the faces of those people who believed in the end of the world at the 21....

Facebook will explode that day,it really will.

"Never give up easily, as long as the people you love are around, you'll be alright."

...Slag.

Slag it all to Firestorm.

EDIT: About the consciousness thing, the way I think about it is this:

Your body will attempt to fulfill it's needs. First and foremost, survival. Your body recognizes the need to breathe, and so breathes automatically. Of course, being in control, you can forcibly stop that. However, you can't hold your breath for the time necessary to suffocate, not willingly, because your body's need to breathe overrides your conscious thought.

Generally, your body has pre-programmed 'instincts'. However, with proper conditioning, most of, if not all of these instincs can be overridden, like the defense reflex (Although that is usually enhanced as opposed to removed, but some people who just don't defend in time will lose that reflex due to disuse.)

Although the human consciousness sits in the 'pilot seat', there are pre-programmed functions that will continue, unless overridden.

In which case control could still be wrestled from the consciousnesses with the latter remaining intact. No need for brain-deaths or deaths whatsoever.

Too deep you say?

I find, that whatever happens after our lives is a business of it's own. It doesn't matter to us now, because we're still living. But if you believe that there is a Heaven and Hell, you'll think it SHOULD matter, because it'll be the result of how we act in our time while we live, right?

I don't think so. Your actions define who you are as a person. If you're going to be a bucket your whole life, then you deserve to go to hell. Why should people have to be given an incentive to do good with their lives? Can't they just be a good person, without seeking some reward at the end?

Because in the end, that's all it is, really. The concept of Heaven and Hell is an incentive and a deterrent. An incentive for those who do good to continue on their path, and a deterrent for those doing not so good to reform.

Humans should not need such devices. We are who we are, we'll be whoever we'll be. If you need a concept of something beyond your life to change who you are going to be, then you are leading a fool's life. You're only changing because you don't want to be punished. You want to live a good life after your death.

Which is just silly.

A person's reforms should be based on what they see and feel as a person themselves. If they're doing bad, they should be able to see the harm they are bringing, the pain they have wrought. They should feel remorse, and regret for having done wrong, rather than fear the fire at the end of their path.

Because if not, if they choose to fear the wrath of hell than the pain wrought by their own conscience, they aren't trying to better themselves. They're just trying to 'earn' enough credit, stay on the right path just enough path to avoid retribution.

And for the good people. What for do they need a reason to continue their 'good'? They will fear the retribution of Hell from their wrongdoing as much as the others do. That's not true to what people should be.

That's not change. That's not being a 'good' person. That's just being selfish enough to want to stay on the better side of the world, to avoid and harm coming to yourself. Were it that the incentives/deterrents weren't there, they'd be no different than when they'd started.

On a lighter note, those who do believe in the Heaven concept have something to look forward to when their time comes. They don't fear death, they embrace the end, instead of fighting the inevitable, when really there should be nothing left to be done, if they've done all they should.

Which is good, and the ideal way to go.

Reincarnation is a matter of belief. Your soul, or whatever is left of your spiritual self could go somewhere, maybe reused in the cycle of life. Who knows? All that should matter is who you are now, and who you are going to be. Not what, who. The rest will fall into place.

You are your own person. Your life and who you are will be decided by the choices you make in your own life. Others may influence you, but none other than you have the control over what you ultimately become. All that spiel about the future and destinies is irrelevant. Your path, however it was decided, is shaped by your own choices. Your destiny may lie on one path, but it's only there because the choices you made led it there. You, and only you hold that control over yourself. Life comes and goes, but who you are will remain. In the memories of others, and in your own soul.

You are who you are. You'll be who you'll be.

To be dissatisfied with who you become, to blame it on others is folly. You alone chose that path, because you alone walk it.

...

Holy Slag, THAT was too deep o.o

I don't really know, but it wasn't what I wrote .('~').

Life isn't really a choice, it was more like a gift. But just like all gifts, it won't last forever, death will slowly come by. Then another person will be gifted with life and so on. Reincarnation isn't too silly in my opinion. Do you have a better explanation for what happens AFTER death? I don't just wanna live and die, I wanna thrive, thrive, and thrive! ^^ Who am I? Who are you? Neither of us can answer that question

I have a better explanation from a theological point of view, yes. Reincarnation is a faith like any theory, and from a theological stand point, yes, I can prove to myself than reincarnation does not exist. From an atheist's stand point, reincarnation probably doesn't sound too silly. Of course, from an atheist stand point, what doesn't sound too silly? Life is pointless to them.

As for the Who Am I/Who are you, I know who I am. It's up to you to decide who you are. While life was a gift, eternal life is a gift far greater, and is influenced by the choices you make in life. Life itself is a gift you could say...your life and my life in specific are choices. Death is simply when you run out of time to decide.

...

Psycho...when did you become such a sophist?

you'll think it SHOULD matter, because it'll be the result of how we act in our time while we live, right?

No, not necessarily. I'm sure most churches believe if you do good things then you'll get closer to Heaven, and if you do bad things you'll burn in Hell. That's not how I believe though - but there is a Heaven and a Hell.

~Sev

Didn't this happen before? A while ago some crazy religious cult predicted the end of the world! When it didn't happen, they blamed it on a bad reading and post-phoned it until 2012...

When will they stop!!

Nibiru isn't real, just ask NASA, but Eris is!

Unfortunately for pessimists, it's billions of light years away and if it was going to collide with us we would be able to see it already, even without a telescope!

Oic.

Wikipedia: "Sophism in the modern definition is a specious argument used for deceiving someone."

Then something about really well spoken teachers or something.

Oh, and when I was 8. 12-13 officially, but 8 was where it started.