this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
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Mildly Interesting
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Mutations happen by chance but the result is not random, because natural selection is not random.
Update: Regarding your first part: A lot of people misunderstand the role randomness plays. Evolution is not random and not a coincidence but a consequence of any system that makes imperfect replicas in an environment that rewards (or punishes) certain traits.
How did the system come about? You say this as if the system were intentionally designed. But it is not: the natural order which creates evolutionary pressure is itself the culmination of many coincidences.
I don't think it was designed but that's nothing evolution is concerned about. Evolution is (as the name implies) about evolving systems and doesn't really say anything about how the first replicating "system" came to be because that's abiogenesis and not evolution.