I’m still struggling with a model of “build up” that makes sense to me.
Overdose is just a case of applying too much phero.
Let’s say that you apply 40mcg of -none molecules to your chest. Also, let’s suppose that exactly 20 mcg of those molecules jump off your chest and into someone’s nose. For convenience, let’s say they jump off in exactly four hours.
It’s the fact that they have jumped OFF your chest, and into the nose, that produces the effect. The molecules still stuck to your chest do nothing, and might as well be kool-aid flavor molecules, because until they do jump off your chest and into someone’s nose, they do nothing. But let’s say that diffusion of 20 mcg per four hours is too much for someone around you to handle – it’s an OD because they cannot hack the rate at which the molecules are arriving to their sensors.
So, let’s assume [1] that the molecules continue to jump off your chest at the same rate – 20 mcg per four hours. After eight hours there’s nothing left on your chest. No build up if the diffusion period discussed here is as short as 4 hours or shorter. But -none doesn’t last forever; if you DON’T OD and you put a reasonable amount on, after 12 hours to a day the amount diminishes to a level that doesn’t produce an effect. So the diffusion rate might not be four hours, but it probably can’t be much more than twenty-four hours.
Or, let’s assume [2] that the molecules somehow know how many of their brothers/sisters/cousins are still hanging onto your chest, and in the next four hours, exactly half of them jump off. From 20 mcg, that would leave 10 mcg on your chest. Another four hours, and half of the molecules jump off again; now, after 12 hours, there are 5 mcg left on your chest. At this rate, after 24 hours (six four-hour periods), there would be 1/64 of the original amount (1 / 2^6) or 0.625 mcg left on your chest. Once again, the half-life might be longer than four hours, but it’s not years.
Or, let’s assume [3] that there’s some threshhold level of -none that can stick to your chest. In this case, let’s assume that it’s 20 mcg. After the first 20 mcg diffuses, the remaining 20 mcg sticks. And stays stuck. In this case, after the first four hours, there would be no effect at all, because no pheromones would be jumping off your chest into someone’s nose. Not until you put more -none on. Then, it might jump off at the same rate as in the first four hours…
This really should be fairly easy to test experimentally. The last case, one puts an OD level of -pheromones all over the body, then waits long enough that there’s no more detectable “-none effect.” Then, apply small amounts of -none until there is a detectable “-none effect.”
The half life concept is easy to understand, but it’s hard to imagine HOW it works physically – unlike radioactive decay, a molecule’s relative volatility should not be “aware” of the presence or lack thereof of other molecules of the same ilk.
My experience and reason say that a modified case #1 should apply; a kind of power distribution, or even a normal distribution of “clinginess”. Each molecule may be identical, but it’s attachment to the body is unique. Or a Poisson distribution of how long any particular molecule stays attached. But there has to be some level of “steady state” if that’s the case.
For each individual, for each molecule, there is some “rate of decay” in diffusion, because the diffusion rate only depends on how much is left on you. But if that’s so, then build-up is not going to be a big problem.
Perhaps, just a guess, a decay rhythm is sustained at 1 mcg of -none a day. If you apply 1 mcg of -none daily, you get a predictable rhythm of diffusion; perhaps you can scale from 1 mcg to some higher level, N mcg, and it just causes the rhythm to rise up in amplitude proportionally – but more than N mcg, and you get OD conditions.
Still, unless there is a spill, any human being should be able to zero in on the level that works for them fairly easily – we do this all the time, determining what time to leave the house for the 8:13am train, allowing for variability in traffic and weather and time to find a parking space, pay, and get on board before the train leaves. Perhaps the first day you allow forty-five minutes, but you find that you are waiting on the platform for twenty-two minutes. You then do successive approximations and correct. When you miss the train (equal to a phero-OD), you overcorrect.
But unless you’re making randomly large corrections, instead of small, half-the-distance corrections, you home in on the workable sustainable rate fairly fast.
The “magic” of build-up just does not make sense to me. Because what stays stuck to you does not produce an effect in someone until and unless it comes unstuck. And once it is unstuck, it’s no longer counting toward buildup.
