So you know the impending zombie apocalypse, the one we in the Western world await with a mix of dread and anticipation?
Well, you may be shocked — SHOCKED — to learn that most of the planet isn't thinking about it, not enough to Google it anyway. Therefore, one can assume, most of the planet is likely unprepared if — or more likely when — the zombie apocalypse goes down.
Such are the findings of the Oxford Internet Institute, which turns out, isn't some shady cyberfront, but actually part of the University of Oxford in Oxford England. As we know from historical film documents such as "Shaun of the Dead," the UK shares a zombie awareness equal to that of the good ol' U.S. of A.
Good thing, too! The learned Oxford scholars used a keyword search for "zombies," to create a map (above) that "visualizes the absolute concentrations of references within the Google Maps database." As you can see, the U.S. Europe, Japan and parts of Australia are the areas of the planet that most have zombies on the braaaaaaaiiiiiinnnnns.
The rest of the world? Woefully ignorant and horribly unprepared. Observe:
The map reveals two important spatial patterns. First, much of the world lacks any content mentioning "zombies" whatsoever. Second, and related, the highest concentrations of zombies in the Geoweb are located in the Anglophone world, especially in large. The results either provide a rough proxy for the amount of English-language content indexed over our planet, or offer an early warning into the geographies of the impending zombie apocalypse.
Forewarned is forearmed! If the Third World hopes to survive, it'd better start building a whole lot of shopping malls!
Oxford Internet Institute via Gizmodo
More on the annoying way we live now:
- Mark Zuckerberg still kills, won't talk about it
- That time Don Draper invented Facebook Timeline
- Schrodinger's Nyan Cat -- no quantum mechanics required
Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.
