  Noncritical M-theory in 2+1 dimensions has been defined as a double-scaling
limit of a nonrelativistic Fermi liquid on a flat two-dimensional plane. Here
we study this noncritical M-theory in the limit of high energies, analogous to
the \alpha'\to\infty limit of string theory. In the related case of
two-dimensional Type 0A strings, it has been argued that the conformal
\alpha'\to\infty limit leads to AdS_2 with a propagating fermion whose mass is
set by the value of the RR flux. Here we provide evidence that in the
high-energy limit, the natural ground state of noncritical M-theory similarly
describes the AdS_2\times S^1 spacetime, with a massless propagating fermion.
We argue that the spacetime effective theory in this background is captured by
a topological higher-spin extension of conformal Chern-Simons gravity in 2+1
dimensions, consistently coupled to a massless Dirac field. Intriguingly, the
two-dimensional plane populated by the original nonrelativistic fermions is
essentially the twistor space associated with the symmetry group of the
AdS_2\times S^1 spacetime; thus, at least in the high-energy limit, noncritical
M-theory can be nonperturbatively described as a "Fermi liquid on twistor
space."
