Interesting Idea...

[losermeetsworld]

So, I've been thinking about something... It's common knowledge that headcrabs invade the nervous system to control hosts, right? Injecting alien DNA *could* produce mutations in real life, but not actually control someone... DNA is just a blueprint, not a sentient being capable of controling someone... So the only feisable way for a crab to control someone is to make the host braindead, and then send electrical pulses into the hosts to make muscles contract/release, which has been proved to be possible (using outside electrical force to contract human muscle). So basically, I'm positive headcrabs are somehow capable of creating and using electricity, and the complexity of the task suggests higher intelligence.

While in Gmod posing ragdolls... I noticed that the headcrabs and the Vortigaunts both share the same weird backwards knee setup on their legs, and both end in the EXACT same split-hoof design, and also, Vortigaunts have 4 fangs, crabs have 4 fangs, and you can see crabs walk on their back legs when they charge at you... There's lots of superficail similarities if you look closer... So I'm thinking, maybe the Vortigaunts and headcrabs are the same race, and the crabs are a larval or baby Vortigaunt. It kind of makes sense, too... It's a perfect race to enslave. The Combine has a race that they can just sit back and send acouple babies into an area, the babies reproduce like mad and create a zillion zombies, eliminating the enemy and creating a city that will eventually mature into multitudes of slaves. It also stands up, the Vortiguants have control over electricity, so maybe while they are crabs they slowly learn how to manipulate and control electricity so that when they mature they know how to control it.

Let me know what you think... I'm 50/50 on if I actually buy into this...

Spoiler

The Gman is NOT Gordon.

 

[Llama]

Vortigaunts and Headcrabs = Not related.
Hell, Vortigaunts cook Headcrabs. Besides, the combine would have to deal with the issue of have hundreds of Headcrabs (that dont turn into Zombies) eventually growing into a small army of Vortigaunts, which are not only very powerful but are also extremly intelligent and hate the Combine in all its forms. The combine havent got control of the Vortigaunt race at all as far as is known, just a few issolated inderviduals forced to do menial work.

 

[Ghostdog]

Don´t headcrabs grow up to be like Gonarch in some cases?

 

[Eejit]

Headcrabs and Vortigaunts are not the same race.

But perhaps they have a common evolutionary ancestor. The fact that vortigaunts can eat headcrabs actually supports this.

 

[Rizzo]

Headcrabs and Vortigaunts are not the same race.

But perhaps they have a common evolutionary ancestor. The fact that vortigaunts can eat headcrabs actually supports this.

I whould go for that, but the thing with the head crab controling, that could be somthing else than electrisity. Becouse when you just shot the bodey, it die. And the crab goes for someone else. If it was indead electric pulse controling... A dead bodey whould still move around, Regardless the amount of bullets in it. So My theori is that the bodey is alive and the heart is still beating.

 

[Llama]

Headcrabs and Vortigaunts are not the same race.

But perhaps they have a common evolutionary ancestor. The fact that vortigaunts can eat headcrabs actually supports this.

That means that because I can eat a lobster, I am related.

Now, i obviously know that pretty much everything on Earth IS related slightly. Is that the evolutionary link you are talking about, or do you mean a closer relation? (EG: Gorillas and Humans)

 

[TheGMan.]

Nah, they couldn't be connected. Vortigaunt is like a human, a headcrab is like a annyoing cat. I don't see the relation, especially if the Vortigaunt is buring it over a fire, or cooking it.

 

[spookymooky]

Well, I've heard of a fungus that can control ants, to an extent, with chemicals. So that could be the solution.

http://www.mjt.org/exhibits/stinkant.htm

 

[Eejit]

That means that because I can eat a lobster, I am related.

Now, i obviously know that pretty much everything on Earth IS related slightly. Is that the evolutionary link you are talking about, or do you mean a closer relation? (EG: Gorillas and Humans)

Hehe, no. I do simply mean that it supports them evolving in the same environment/plant, whatever from a common ancestor - not close like Gorillas and humans but from at least the same Kingdom, maybe even Genus.

Although I accept Valve may not think of this (not very commonly used in sci-fi) there's no reason to think that organisms evolving on entirely seperate worlds with possibly different DNA, proteins or even different amino acids would be readily digestible to one another. If anything, it's more likely that a complete alien would find our food poisonous or at least have long-term health issues.

 

[losermeetsworld]

I whould go for that, but the thing with the head crab controling, that could be somthing else than electrisity. Becouse when you just shot the bodey, it die. And the crab goes for someone else. If it was indead electric pulse controling... A dead bodey whould still move around, Regardless the amount of bullets in it. So My theori is that the bodey is alive and the heart is still beating.

Perhaps, but I've noticed that the "kill zone" for zombies seems to be down the middle of the zombie towards the upper chest/stomach... Where the spinal cord is. If you put a bullet through the spinal cord, which is the mainstream for every nerve in the body, anything from pretty much at the break or below is instantly and forevermore paralyzed... So a headcrab would detect that, hop off, and find a new body. As for the whole "I've killed a zombie by shooting it in the foot 1,000,000,000 times though!" Well, what kind of fun would it be to face a horde of zombies and you had to either get a headshot or hit a pencil thin strip in the very center? Plus, if you have a lot of metal in your body (ex, bullets) that would attract the electricity and distrupt the signals rendering the body useless...

 

[Adabiviak]

Headcrabs probably control the nervous system the same way we control a car - they just grab the 'reins' and go. I'm reminded of the crustacean parasite that takes over a species of crab. It causes the crab to crank out tons of female hormones, turning male crabs into females, and females, well, more female. Then it makes them think they are pregnant (or with a brood) and the crab does it's protective number, swooshing part of it's body where the babies normally would be but the parasite has put its own prodigy there. Most disgusting. I'll have to google it to get the facts straight, but that's about right.

 

[losermeetsworld]

"Grab the reins and go"


How does are brain use the reins to control our own body?


Electrical pulses.

 

[Adabiviak]

Sylon hippolytes

Attacks free swimming shrimp, convinces them that they are females, which induces the protective/nurturing behavior typically reserved for their own brood, but in fact benefits the parasite.

 

[UltimaApocalypse]

I doubt headcrabs are baby Vortigaunts or evan Larvae. They're just too different. Plus, Vortigaunts are a hivemind. They are highly intelligent. Sense when has a group of headcrabs ever conversed with each other or actually do anything smart? It's just impossible. But nice theory there

 

[ríomhaire]

Double post, sorry

 

[ríomhaire]

"These crab creatures seem to be able to directly control the host's nervous system"
Or something like that.

 

[Rizzo]

there was another thread where someone know a shitload of things about head humpers.