>Code is read and maintained by humans, so it is under selection pressure to be comprehensible by human minds. I think the opposite is actually true for code t

>Code is read and maintained by humans, so it is under selection pressure to be comprehensible by human minds. I think the opposite is actually true for code that lives in long-running projects that change hands relatively often. It seems like the safest state for code to be in is actually to be incomprehensible, so it's too "scary" for any developer to refactor. All the comprehensible code can meanwhile be safely moved around until it's eventually incomprehensible as well. Speaking from complete naivete about biology, I wonder if there's a similar game going on with viruses and cell machinery. If the cell's processes are too "legible", then presumably they're easier for a virus to evolve to hijack.