Walking in the Uncanny Valley

Bison disappeared from Central Europe over 200 years ago. Now they are once again crossing the Southern Carpathian Mountains thanks to WWF Romania and Rewilding Europe, a non-profit organization focused on restoring wild nature across Europe.

The bison is a keystone species. In the ecologically impoverished areas where they were implanted and are now thriving, a lot has changed. By trampling undergrowth, grazing (eating grass) and browsing (consuming leaves and fruits from shrubs and smaller trees), fertilizing the ground and simultaneously spreading seed, they have transformed nutrient-poor scrubland into a patchwork of forest, grasslands and micro-environments in which diversity rapidly emerges (1-3).

There is a ten-fold increase in the draw-down of CO2 into new biomass (4). New plants, flowers, insects, birds, and small mammals appear, forming biologically rich ecosystems which resemble patterns recorded in pre-industrial times (1-3). Environments degraded by human housing and industry revert to an earlier equilibrium, an equilibrium which had evolved over millennia prior to industrialization.

All life forms have the ability to heal, to recover partially or completely from non-fatal insults. Ecosystems can be parsed similarly, in that they will tend to move towards equilibrium states which represent the most efficient use of available energy by the totality of living organisms in that space and at that time. That equilibrium may be perturbed by a new input (fires, floods, logging operations, an invading species etc), but if this input is removed, a new equilibrium – which may be a variant of the older steady state – will appear (5, 6).

The notion of equilibria (aka climax states) interspersed by short periods of rapid ecological change is analogous to the punctuated theory of evolution. I suspect that this kind of systems approach is relevant not only to speciation and the health of our planet, but also to our personal health.

We have been harmed by the industrialization of our habitat, and specifically the industrialization of food and physical activity. Our dietary environment has been impoverished (7) and our buffering systems and inner equilibria disturbed (8), creating multiple metabolic, epigenetic and physiological problems which manifest in our declining public health.

Go AI-nuts into the future, by all means. Nutritionally, however, we must turn back, re-wild ourselves, and allow aeons-old metabolic and epigenetic patterns to settle into safer and more stable configurations if we wish to restore our inner ecosystem, and reverse the incoming tides of chronic degenerative disease.

Consider our own keystone colonists, such as Bacteroides fragilis and stercoris, Prevotella species and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii. These exert a disproportionate influence on the structure and functioning of the microbiota in the gut and thus in other tissues, via their ability to break down bile conjugates and plant polysaccharides into smaller molecules (9) which probiotics, commensals (and some opportunistic pathogens) can utilise as fuel.

The polysaccharides include gums, glucans, pectins and hemicelluloses such as arabinoxylan and glucuroarabinoxylan. Apart from the gums, these fibers are major components of plant cell walls, and the best food sources include whole grains, legumes and various root vegetables.

Some Bacteroides and another keystone species, Akermansia muciniphila, also utilise polyphenols as a fuel source or ecological support in the colon (10). So do the probiotic Lactobacilli and Bifodobacteria (11, 12)

Because food processing generally removes the bran where grain cell wall fibers are concentrated, and as we have transitioned from traditional to ultraprocessed diets, our intakes of fiber have plummeted (13). A probable (though regionally varied) reduction in legume intake has likely contributed to this problem (14). The polyphenols have receded too (ie 15).

The resulting depletion of keystone species has led to widespread dysbiosis (16, 17), as has the direct starvation of probiotic species. Both these factors remove important anti-inflammatory probiotic metabolites such as butyrate and indole propionic acid (18) from the gut environment.

The compensatory increase in proteolytic and lipolytic bacteria has encouraged a more pro-inflammatory climate in the gut (ie 19), and, via increased gut permeability, in all other tissues besides (20, 21).

Dietary fiber improves insulin sensitivity, blood glucose control and lipid profiles, reduces chronic inflammatory stress in the gut and other tissues, and is cardio- and chemo-protective (22). Hardly surprising, therefore, that populations consuming an industrial diet experience insulin resistance, high fasting and postprandial glucose, high plasma cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and an unnaturally high incidence of gastrointestinal and degenerative disease.

Restoring whole grains and legumes into the diet restocks microbial keystone species, rewilds the microbiota, resets the internal ecosystem and immune system (23, 24), and confers multiple health benefits (ie 22). It may even protect against the subsequent development of antibiotic resistance (25).

NB. Plunging into a fiber-rich diet (I do not recommend ‘fibermaxxing’) disturbs the pre-existing climax state in the intestinal ecosystem, creating instability before a more natural, more diverse and healthier equilibrium can emerge. The transition is made much easier by adding the right fibers, in the right proportions, and in stages.

We can rewild our microbiota and immune systems in other, complementary ways.

Historically recent advances in infection control and increased urbanization have reduced our exposure to exogenous immunomodulators such as Saccharomyces and other old friends (26). Our house-broken immune systems, combined with disastrous diets, have left us paradoxically more prone to infection, allergy and autoimmune disease (26, 27). By restoring these microbial keystones our immune systems are rewilded, producing further health dividends.

You could also consider rewilding your diet, and thus your entire metabolome.

First rule is: Shop the perimeter. Hunt, gather and peck around the outer edges of the supermarket where fresh and unprocessed foods are generally located. Avoid the centre aisles where Pateurised External Secretions, Pilnick’s Pabula (28) and other ultra-processed poisons pause, poised.

Second rule is: Choose higher nutrient density snacks, especially if you are elderly (29). Nuts, hummus, fresh fruits and vegetables, which may go down easier with a dip. Also hard-boiled eggs, seaweed, cheese and my favourite, stockfish … there are plenty of options. (29 is an excellent paper co-written by my friend and colleague Emmalee Gisslevik).

Third rule is: Cultivate Hara Hachi Bu. Leave the table while still slightly hungry. This behaviour, which is associated with better health expectancy (30), likely re-creates earlier and wilder patterns of eating from before the age of food security.

Fourth rule is: Eat kosher salamis (31).

Feel free to ignore the fourth rule. I have an adolescent weakness for the Ramones. May you rest in the peace you never experienced during your chaotic and abbreviated lives.

My general point is that if microbial and nutritional keystones are re-introduced, older and more natural (and therefore healthier) internal ecosystems are restored. Modern morbidities such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer would fall back to pre-industrial levels (32). But we must rewild society too, because health is embedded in politics.

The gauleiters currently driving Western Europe into recession are at the same time destroying democracy, and public health besides (33). We are being immiserated, with all the illness and premature dying that comes with it (33). Morally and financially corrupt, the pols have thrown our money into the bonfires of their vanity while borders decay, high-trust societies disintegrate and parliaments lose legitimacy.

Opinion polls show that large sections of the electorate are understandably hostile to what they see as a self-regarding and uncaring kleptocracy. The kleptocats respond by stripping away our liberties and ability to protest while insisting, in Hobbesian terms, that it is for our benefit (34).

For those who still believe in their nonsense, I will trot out the old Ben Franklin quote. ‘Those who would give up essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.’ Starmer, Macron and Merz were selected, but not in any real democratic sense by the electorate; and in an attempt to maintain control during the pending troubles (35) they are destroying social keystones such as the police.

The Keystone cops are a civil immune system of sorts. Ideally, they facilitate a good society by monitoring and controlling disruptive elements which threaten its equilibrium. When they become thought police, however (35-37), they become a destabilising force. Our freedoms diminish, society sickens. As more of us succumb to fear, frustration and violence it becomes harder to remain sane (38), and the decay spreads further and faster until a terrible new climax state is born.

Recent cases expose the 2-tier policing that is tearing British society apart:

British police wore jogging outfits to elicit catcalls, then arrested men who hit on them (39).

British police arrest men, women for silent prayer (40).

British police arrest a man for criticizing his daughter’s teachers on WhatsApp (41).

BUT

UK councilor acquitted over ‘cut all their throats’ speech (42).

Our police, political class and bureaucracy are deeply compromised. They fail to understand why they are so mistrusted (43) and loathed (44), and display neither the will nor the wisdom required to bring the public body back to health.

Sortition (selecting people for office randomly) would produce a less manicured form of governance and, while it would bring problems of its own, might provide a useful punctuation in our political disequilibrium.

Where, then, are our bison? Will they be real, or the next generation of the unreal (45)? Will AI make politicians more effective, or – given the current crop – more oppressive? Or will it, eventually, replace fallible and corruptible human politicians altogether?

Vote early, vote often, vote optimus?

Coming soon: Should Ames Remain the Same? The ecology of cancer.

References

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34. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/online-safety-act-explainer/online-safety-act-explainer
35. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3h49O0AGxx0
36. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXURFRSUS9U
37. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZd6W0-RtHo
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39. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/aug/13/surrey-police-pose-as-joggers-to-catch-men-harassing-women-running-exercising
40. https://www.premierchristianity.com/news-analysis/can-you-be-arrested-for-praying-in-your-head/18515.article
41. https://www.facebook.com/SkyNewsAustralia/videos/no-free-speech-uk-man-arrested-in-front-of-his-crying-children-over-whatsapp-mes/658945320103128/
42. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-councillor-acquitted-over-cut-all-their-throats-speech-2025-08-15/
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44. Personal experience
45. https://www.the-independent.com/tech/robots-ai-design-flaw-boston-dynamics-tesla-b2805362.html