Posted: Jun 23, 2017 12:48 pm
Not my intent.
As for your use of the word, "search", I don't think that is the best word to use, unless you are into obscurantism.The term has connotations of intelligence being behind it, for one thing. I understand that evolution could be viewed as a "search" for new, successful genomes, but, as I said, the danger is in the hint of intelligence behind the "search".
Agreed, old programmer habit. Its like saying an adaptation is "for" something, instead of a simple result of a situation.
EDIT: Also, of the billion or do germ-line cells, producing sperm cells, very few actually get used to fertilise an egg cell, so the numbers you are citing are inappropriately large, unless you have billions of babies.
There is more than a billion individual reproducing organisms on Earth at any one time.