Here’s what I’d agree with: Specific cell functions are near a local optimum of usefulness, in terms of small changes to DNA that could have been supported against mutation with the fraction of the selection budget that was allocated to those functions in the ancestral environment.
This formulation explains why human scurvy is allowed—producing vitamin C was unimportant in our ancestral environment, so the gene for it was allowed to degrade. And it doesn’t fault us for not using fusion to extract energy from food—there’s no small perturbation to our current digestive tract that starts a thermonuclear reaction.
Here’s what I’d agree with: Specific cell functions are near a local optimum of usefulness, in terms of small changes to DNA that could have been supported against mutation with the fraction of the selection budget that was allocated to those functions in the ancestral environment.
This formulation explains why human scurvy is allowed—producing vitamin C was unimportant in our ancestral environment, so the gene for it was allowed to degrade. And it doesn’t fault us for not using fusion to extract energy from food—there’s no small perturbation to our current digestive tract that starts a thermonuclear reaction.