Artwork by Antoine Collignon, via ArtStation.

Artwork by Antoine Collignon, via ArtStation.

Can a cyborg become a zombie? Since a cyborg is a regular ol’ flesh human with extra hardware installed, I don’t see why not (assuming we accept zombies as a prior). In fact, the idea that humans will figure out how to technologically augment our bodies and minds, then succumb to a modern Black Death, is fitting.

I don’t think zombies transplanted straight from horror movies are likely, but a devastating epidemic is not implausible. Heck, even now, Zika is intimidating. I doubt that our society can quickly engineer ourselves all the way to pure `0`s and `1`s.

If the side effects of industrialization — say, global warming and dramatically reduced biodiversity — allow nature’s destructive randomness knock us back to square one just as we’ve reached the ultimate reward of having mastered machines… Well. That would be poetic.

The artist, Antoine Collignon, appended this quote from The Animatrix to the image above:

“In the beginning, there was man. And for a time, it was good. But humanity’s so-called civil societies soon fell victim to vanity and corruption. Then man made the machine in his own likeness. Thus did man become the architect of his own demise.”

Humans are nothing if not expert self-saboteurs.