Re: Copy / Paste in software development

I think nobody here can deny that copy and paste is an established
method of software development.

You know: you have some code that works, and you want to modify it.
You copy it and paste the code somewhere else, then you modify it
leaving the running code in its place until you switch to the new
version.
True, many people are against this fashion of developing software.
The correct (in the abstract) process should be of finding out the
common parts of the code and isolate the changes as far as it is
possible, maintaining a common line.

The copy/paste is considered harmful.

But... I was surprised when I read this article in PLOS: [1]

<quote>
One of the primary agents of genome evolution is gene duplication.
Duplicated genes provide the raw material for the generation of
novel genes and biological functions, which in turn allow the
evolution of organismal complexity and new species. James Sikela
and colleagues set out to compare gene duplications between humans
and four of our closest primate relatives to find the genetic roots
of our evolutionary split from the other great apes. Collecting the
DNA of humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans from
blood and experimental cell lines, the researchers used microarray
analysis to identify variations in the number of copies of
individual genes among the different species. They analyzed nearly
30,000 human genes and compared their copy numbers in the genomes
of humans and the four great apes.
Overall, Sikela and colleagues found more than 1,000 genes with
lineage-specific changes in copy number, representing 3.4% of the
genes tested. All the great ape species showed more increases than
decreases in gene copy numbers, but relative to the evolutionary
age of each lineage, humans showed the highest number of genes with
increased copy numbers, at 134. Many of these duplicated human
genes are implicated in brain structure and function.

The gene changes identified in the study, the authors conclude,
likely represent most of the major lineage-specific gene expansions
(or losses) that have taken place since orangutans split from the
other great apes, some 15 million years ago. (Humans diverged from
their closest cousins, the chimp and bonobo, roughly 5 million to 7
million years ago.) And because some of these gene changes were
unique to each of the species examined, they will likely account
for some of the physiological and morphological characteristics
that are unique to each species.
<end quote>

Apparently the programmer (or programmer team) 15 million years ago
were in a hurry. And copy / paste, as everyone here knows, is not
an accepted method but... it works, and that is all that counts.

What were they tinkering with?

"... humans showed the highest number of genes with increased copy
numbers, at 134. Many of these duplicated human genes are
implicated in brain structure and function"

All those millions of years later, the descendants of those apes,
still running the same code, start to wonder...

WHAT HAPPENED?