From terra firma to terra plana--danger is shaking the foundations: deconstructing the 'immune system'

The paradigm of an immune system presumes that a system arose specifically to combat infection -- hence its name. This paradigm gained credibility with the discovery of antibodies and anamnestic immunity, even though these are relatively late arrivals in evolution. Another presumption has been that thymus-dependent T cells are responsible for discriminating self from non-self. Subsequent opinion has crystallized around these presumptions. This paradigm is flawed. Transforming it into a morphostatic system resolves the problems. There is, arguably, no such thing as an immune system.