ful examples and the formation of cor-
rect functional syntactic combinations.
The studies mentioned above deal
with the learning of intransitive verb-
dependent combinations and of transi-
tive verbs in verb-object (VO) and sub-
ject-verb-object (SVO) relations. The
view of the first examples as useful ex-
amples is further strengthened by the
fact that the first words learned are eas-
ily seen to be generic of some relation of
the speaker to the world. In learning in-
transitive verbs children deal with ani-
mate objects, and the first few verbs
spoken in word combinations (i.e.,
learned) always cover categories both of
active (come, go) and passive/static
(fall, sleep) relations [9]. VO syntactic
combinations are learned before SVO.
The improvement in one syntactic com-
bination is separate from the improve-
ment in the other. In 13 of 16 children,
the Hebrew verb “raza” (want) was one
of the first VO verbs (and if not, it was
generally the first SVO verb). In VO,
84.4% of first utterances were requests,
whereas in SVO 25.9% were requests
and 44.4% were descriptions of creation
or consumption of objects. In learning
both syntactic combinations what is be-
ing learned, along with the correct use
of VO and SVO, are useful examples of
the child’s relation to alienable objects
(things that can be part of me or not
part of me). The child is learning to add,
remove, or maintain objects in his “per-
sonal space” [10] and in essence is ac-
quiring an achieved set of representa-
tions to deal with objects and their ab-
stract reflections.
The statistical shape of language is
such that when speaking to those who
do not speak, we will use those words
that are useful examples and enable the
cognitive task of learning. Languages
are “built” so that when talking in
simple language to children, we will
corroborate the general properties of
correct speech and sentence formation,
thus enabling the acquisition of lan-
guage. Possibly, we have here also evi-
dence for the priming phase of the most
cognitive of modalities: our ability to
exercise abstract thoughts. Together
with the general properties of language,
we see here that children learn useful
examples of the mental interaction with
alienable objects and define some of the
general properties of abstract thought.
Having shown how our theory
works in systems, commonly
agreed upon to be cognitive, we
come now, finally, to the immune sys-
tem. It is in treating the immune system
as cognitive that we believe that our
theory is most controversial and also of
the greatest benefit compared with the
present paradigm, the clonal selection
theory. We hope to show, citing various
sources of contemporary research, that
present knowledge of the immune sys-
tem and its interaction with the anti-
genic/molecular patterns of our body
calls for the treatment of the immune
system as a cognitive system.
The immune system has an ability to
identify specific events and changes in
the body. The immune system’s envi-
ronment is the body. It interacts on the
cellular/molecular level. To do this, it
has many types of cells as well as effec-
tor and signaling substances, many of
which are yet to be identified and un-
derstood. However, in general the
population of cells that make the im-
mune system can be characterized as
the populations of cells known as lym-
phocytes. The two most important
groups of lymphocytes are called B cells
and T cells.
Both of these cell families have a
unique ability the create receptors,
which, though they all originate from the
same genetic material, use different com-
binations of this material to create an im-
mense variability in their final form. The
shape of the receptor, which like all pro-
teins is based on the sequence of a cer-
tain gene, implies the shape and type of
molecule that will activate the receptor.
Therefore, this genetic variability gives
the immune system the potential ability
to have receptors that can identify a near
infinite number of molecular shapes. The
molecules that immune receptors iden-
tify are commonly known as antigens.
The region within the antigen to which
they attach is known as an epitope. A
single antigen may have several different
epitopes.
The receptors of B cells identify ex-
tracellular substances. The receptors of
T cells identify intracellular substances
by interacting with specialized antigen-
presenting proteins known as major
histocompatability complex (MHC) re-
ceptors [11], which are expressed on the
surface of every one of the body’s cells.
MHCs present fragments of intracellu-
lar proteins, in effect mirroring the in-
ternal state of the cell. Together, T cells
and B cells can identify most intra- and
extracellular substances. The immune
system’s identification and reaction to a
pathogen or other immune events is de-
pendent on mutual reaction by both T
cells and B cells to that event [12].
In trying to fit the immune system to
our theory of cognitive systems, we are
making a remark on the kind of recep-
tor repertoire that the immune system
forms out of its potential variability.
The potential repertoire of receptors
is immense, between 1011 for B cells
and 1016 for T cells [4]. Because (in
mice) the immune system contains only
about 108 of each of the types of cells
and every single cell has only one type
of receptor, it is obvious that the actual
repertoire is smaller. If the immune
system were to have a repertoire built
of every potential receptor it can gener-
ate, then in a rat, for example, this
would necessitate having a spleen 70
times the size of the rat’s entire body
[13]. What kind of repertoire actually ex-
ists, and what factors are important in
its formation?
As we mentioned above, immunol-
ogy is in the midst of a paradigm shift.
There is an especially widespread de-
bate on the way in which the immune
system differentiates between the mo-
lecular patterns of the body and foreign
pathogens [3]. We will not go into all
aspects of this discussion. In plain
words, the current textbook outlook on
immunity, the clonal selection theory,
states that anything that an immune
cell receptor identifies is a foreign
pathogen. According to the clonal selec-
tion theory, this state of affairs is
brought about in the following way:
During embryonic development im-
mune cells are created randomly, each
reactive to a different antigen. Those
18
CO M PLEXITY
© 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.