zombiefication

He now kills a poor black bum, slowly and sadistically, in a scene whose terrible pathos is inescapable. Ellis may have intended this in order to highlight Patrick’s increasing zombiefication as the murders progress and the most repulsive of acts are described in an affectless monotone.

1992, Elizabeth Young, “The beast in the jungle, the figure in the carpet: Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho”, in Elizabeth Young, Graham Caveney, Shopping in Space: Essays on America’s Blank Generation Fiction, New York, N.Y.: Atlantic Monthly Press with Serpent’s Tail, published 1993, →ISBN, page 109

The considerable human factors efforts that have been undertaken on workplace design since Three Mile Island unfortunately have been lacking in understanding of the physiology of keeping people alert. Many surfaces are highly reflective sources of glare, encouraging dimming of the lights at night, temperatures are often too warm, and automation leads to human “zombiefication,” a problem urgently needing a solution.

1993, Martin Moore-Ede, “The Power of Our Society”, in The Twenty-Four-Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Stops, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, →ISBN, page 115