What if there are actually two nervous systems? The gut (which sees the individual through the collective lens), and the brain (which sees the collective through the individual lens).
When we lag behind the speed of light, time is too fast. This creates a computational error as the two nervous systems clash. The brain sees time running quickly and assumes it’s in acidosis and needs to slow down. The gut knows the individual is actually behind time, slower than the speed of light (in metabolic alkalosis) and wants to speed up—but the brain won’t let it. As soon as any metabolic increase starts to generate excess acid, the brain tells the liver to make ammonia as a metabolic corrective. The metabolism gets a wet blanket right when it needs a match. We should be taking off, but instead we founder.
Call it a pH paradox. The brain thinks we’re in acidosis, when in fact we’re in alkalosis. We are too slow—inside a time signature that’s too fast. All the ammonia depletes our manganese (via arginase activity), which increases our iron to manganese ratios—and we fall farther behind the speed of light.
It’s not exactly that our brains are complete idiots who are ruining everything. The computational error is understandable, because both things are true: We need to speed up, so that time can slow down for us (akin to shifting gears). When we do this, we enter a new time signature.
It’s the opposite for our Autistic children. We lag behind time, whereas they have surpassed it. We think they’re behind us, when, in fact, they’re ahead. Their brains are running too quickly, so time has slowed down for them. Here, the Autistic brain perceives time as slow, and assumes it’s in alkalosis and needs to speed up. The gut, which is smarter than the brain, knows they are in metabolic acidosis and wants to slow them down—but the brain won’t let it. Every time the gut manufactures ammonia, to try to put the brakes on metabolism, the brain revs it.
A surfeit of ammonia would have depleted their manganese (via arginase activity), which would have increased their iron to manganese ratios, allowing them to fall back to the proper time signature. But the metabolic increase cancels the ammonia surfeit. The gut tries to manufacture ammonia again, but there’s a cap to how much ammonia a body can tolerate, and when the brain keeps revving the metabolic rate, we quickly reach it. As time moves forward, we should be catching up to our Autistic children, but they keep speeding ahead.
