Quote:

There isn't just a pool of DNA waiting to be written. You might be more accurate to say you want to rewrite the sentence

"Run over the ground."

to the sentence

"Fly through the sky."

Now, if you let monkeys randomly type at the keyboard, even if they get a letter right, it has to make sense in the overall picture. In other words ending up with the word 'Ruy' wouldn't be useful because even though its closer to 'Fly' it makes no sense. We can randomly get closer to a different sentence, but because the DNA is already ordered, it has to fit into the larger picture of the order because the creature is dependent on this pre-existing order to live.



I don't know much about (biological) evolution, it is just an idea:

What, if the DNA isn't well put in order and full of more and less senseless rests of former mutations beside the "sense-making sentences"?
The "rests" partly could easely be re-animated per mutation, giving a new chance to collaborate with the given already working sentences!
Maybe, there is a bunch of sentences which are only not providing the current "version" of the species.

There are so many species that survived with very different "features" which are not necessary for their survival.
So, there might be a huge amount of DNA which isn't aquired for survival as well and these are available to "get sense" via variation.


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Your "monkey at the piano"-example has the disadvantage that it doesn't take in account that the DNA isn't completely smashed apart by a mutation, but that in relation to the amount of "letters" there are only few "letters" changed within a generation.
The "monkey at piano" might be an example for a radioactive eco-catastrophy.

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