[edsheppa]

The odds are overwhelmingly against a chance change being useful.

What do you make of this? The conclusion I draw is that the space of biologically useful amino acid sequences is much larger than you suggest.

[maro]

I can't tell whether you're with me or against me on this. The PROPORTION of useful sequences must be small. Consider Hiroshima. Due to the nuke we set off there, many thousands of people died, and the level of radiation increased. The increased radiation seems to have caused harmful mutations that resulted in stillbirths and birth defects. Have you heard of one useful mutation that came out of Hiroshima? Any X-men type mutants around? I think not. Mutations generally are harmful.