In reality, the science fiction speculation is not so far-fetched. The only trouble is that the herpes virus may also excite the immune system, activating the defenses of the body to create antigen-specific antibodies to thwart, if not destroy, the virus.

Unfortunately, it is also possible that in their effort to attack the herpes invader, the antibodies may lay waste or eat through the insulation around the nerves that harbor the virus. This insulation is called myelin or myelin sheathing. At the point where the myelin sheathing is destroyed, the living nerve becomes exposed. It eventually dies, and becomes scar tissue.

And so one eventually suffers that worst fate of all, becoming blind to one's own meanings, a form of epistemological autoimmunology.