Why don't people use walkers as an energy source?
I mean, cut off there jaws, chain them up, and hook them to a a treadmill and hang a piece of meat in front of them them. Then bam the walker is walking forever and you have an unlimited energy source. Why don't more groups use this method of obtaining energy?
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Wouldn't the treadmill eventually run out of power? Or wouldn't the walkers find another way to get the meat?
It wont because walker movement is the source of power. And walkers haven't gotten that smart yet.
Imagine the movement of an entire (neutralized) herd providing power.
Well, there would be a whole bunch of walkers around the treadmill, some of them would be on the side, and then...you know, they get the meat.
Well if you have a large group of people that can actually build a device like this I'm sure there would be some of them that would call it unethical. It is powered by people you may have known at one point or possibly a freind/family member. It would be tarnishing their memory of them by turning them into a slave thingy. Just saying... what if it was Lee that was put on that tredmil.
They are too slow to make a treadmill go and their legs would probably fall apart walking so long, thats why. Walker abuse!
Roman and Shel had similar ideas.
Off the top of my head:
1.) The walkers would need an incentive to move how you want them to, and hanging meat won't do it. The walkers are attracted solely to the living (I don't think it is explained why that is), with The Well episode in season two of the show being a prime example of that (a piece of meat doesn't attract the bloated walker, but it does go after Glenn). But the walkers will go after animals (in ep 2 of the game a walker is seen chowing down on a deer, and the St. John's imply that the walkers got most of their cattle in the early days of the apocalypse), so that could work.
In other words, you'd need a caged animal (which would need to be kept alive) and an able-bodied walker to chase after it.
2.) You would need a lottttttt of treadmills (mostly just for the parts).
3.) Their bodies deteriorate over time, i.e. they cannot provide unlimited power, and thus it isn't worth the effort and constant supervision (which is needed for a brainless, shambling corpse). Since walkers will eventually die out and less humans will be adding to the walker population in the future, it isn't a long-term power source.
4.) It's "immoral" and dangerous to use walkers in such a fashion.
5.) You'd need a lot of space to actually make the idea viable.
6.) You'd need someone that can turn this pipe dream into a reality.
7.) Even if the idea is possible, the zone would need to be constantly protected from raider/walker attacks.
Basically: too risky, not enough payout, too difficult, inefficient, etc.
1.) yah that is a way better idea then the piece of meat lol
2.) well I really just used treadmills as an example, you can use some sort of man made enlarged hamster wheel, it doesn't necessarily have to be a treadmill.
3.) although walkers will eventually deteriorate and become useless, as long as people die walkers will roam the earth, so let's say you have a community like Alexandria, when the people die they become a zombie and join creating energy.
4.) I wouldn't consider it immoral, the people the walker used to be is already dead and it's more like the walker is inhabiting the corpse of a human body. And it wouldn't be dangerous if you cut off the walkers jaws, even if they did break out they wouldn't be able to do anything cause they can't bite anyone.
5.) well this system would be implemented within large communities and large communities usually have allot of space. But at the same time there is no way in hell you can implement this system independently unless your the next Einstein.
6.) Rick, The Governor, Gareth, Ezekiel, Alpha, Carver, and Negan. And even although most of them are dead it's definitely more then likely that there are just as much competent people still surviving.
7.) Yah touché on that one, but that kind of comes with the territory
By staying in one place
Easier said than done.
Forget treadmills, too complex, too difficult to keep the walkers walking on such a small surface, and the upkeep would be nearly impossible. However, something much more primitive and simple would make sense for grinding grain, maybe even pumping water from a well or generating electricity.
Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5KYZ74OAak
Instead of pushing, the walkers would be chained and pulling the spokes, and there would have to be some kind of live bait dangling in front of each of them to keep them moving forward (maybe something like a rabbit or chicken in a cage). Not really sure what would keep one walker from trying to turn around and walk toward the live bait behind it if there were several chained to the spokes, though...
The biggest problem would come from their tissues decaying to the point that the chains pass right through them and they break free (or their limbs/extremities break off), but with monitoring and replacing decayed walkers with new ones, I think survivors in TWD universe could actually set up useful mills by adapting simple technology like this. I kind of expect to see a community like The Hilltop or Kingdom doing something like this.
You could use the same design to spin a motor (and generate electricity), but the beauty of a simple horse mill design (like Conan clip) is that it would likely be much more durable and easy to control/scale.
P.S. The Conan example is ridiculously sized (to show how strong he grew), but a real life "horse mill" could allow for a lot of grinding to be done by just a single walker that's baited with a live animal in a cage in front of it:
examples)
https://www.google.com/search?q=horse+mill&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi3t4qH_6fQAhVO32MKHS0eDqgQsAQIJw&biw=960&bih=946#imgdii=bGBZnYRHmQMpuM:;bGBZnYRHmQMpuM:;ghTzXza2HqxYUM:&imgrc=bGBZnYRHmQMpuM:
What?! You want force those poor creatures to work? Forget. There'd be riots.
But a treadmill need power to be used, so it'd be something like a bike that could create energy to begin with. But walkers can't ride bikes, they'd like drunken hippies trying to peddle those things.
Maybe the walkers could be put inside a giant hamster wheel, and just:
Ooooor! Or! The walkers could put in one of those big inflatable ball thingys and they let them go at the top of the hill and:
Not that it would power anything, but it'd be fun! It could be a new sport activity for the ZA.
I legitimately want this to be a thing T_T why is this not a thing?