> a lot of that is junk and meaningless. "Dead code", so to speak ... so far as we currently know. DNA is only mostly software; it's also a physical molecule.

> a lot of that is junk and meaningless. "Dead code", so to speak ... so far as we currently know. DNA is only mostly software; it's also a physical molecule. Many of the columns in a DRAM chip look like a waste of capacitance until you know what alpha particles are and what ECC does. > the blind spot in our eyes, which is there for no real reason It's there for a very good reason, the optic nerve connection. Only cephalopods have figured out a better solution, and it's not at all clear that it would work for humans. Our eyes have to tolerate a lifetime of much-higher UV exposure than sea-creatures, for starters. Cephalopods' optic nerves grow in from the retina toward the brain, and there's a huge bundle of complicated connections to make where they "meet in the middle". Vertebrate optic nerves grow out from the brain and embed themselves in the retina, so there's no wiring problem to solve.