Idiotypic Networks and Other Preconceived Ideas

The preceding section implies that the immune system (like the brain) reflects first ourselves, then produces a reflection of this reflection, and that subsequently it reflects the outside world: a hall of mirrors. The second mirror images (i.e., stable anti-idiotypic elements) may well be more complex than the first images (i.e., anti-self). Both give rise to distortions (e.g., mutations, gene rearrangements) permitting the recognition of nonself. The mirror images of the outside world, however, do not have permanency in the genome. Every individual must start with self. Paraphrasing Nicolas Schöffer (Schöffer 1982): those who always seek exterior pressures (e.g., microbes) to account for the evolution of the sets of V genes, would do well to turn their vision towards the interiors of themselves, and there discover the mystery, perhaps never completely revealable, of the immune system.