zombie system

Noun

zombie system (plural zombie systems)

1. A system that continues to operate when it no longer serves a useful purpose.
   • The system is being kept afloat by the black magic of perceived government guarantees. This is virtually a zombie system" ( Willoughby and Conger 1998 : 64 ) .1999, Timothy Kessler, Global Capital and National Politics, page 124
   • Capitalism in the 21st Century "is a zombie system, seemingly dead when it comes to achieving human goals ... but capable of sudden spurts of activity that cause chaos all around" .2009, Labour Research - Volume 98, page 27
2. A neurological system that functions without conscious direction.
   • If, however, you happen to be an organism with plenty of input sensors and output effectors, say, a mammal, devoting a zombie system to each and every possible input-output combination became too expensive .2004, Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach, page 318
   • Second , it seems that information can flow from the phenomenal level to the non-conscious zombie systems, but not the other way round (Bridgeman, 2000). In some cases of visually guided actions, when a delayed response to the stimulus is required, the nonconscious system cannot store the relevant...2006, Antti Revonsuo, Inner Presence: Consciousness as a Biological Phenomenon, page 378
3. Synonym of zombie computer.
   • Once a trojan acquires control of a remote system, the malicious user can act through the "zombie" system and the source of his or her mischief will be identified as coming from the compromised system, as opposed to his or her own.2003, Jason Albanese, Wes Sonnenreich, Network Security Illustrated, page 393
   • It is a free, open source tool that can tell a zombie system flooding packets to stop flooding.2007, Pranav Pareek, Hacking-- the Untold Story -, page 115

   Synonyms:

   zombie computer