Are you thinking there is only ~1/8.7e349236 viable solutions? There is no reason to expect you need to exhaust even a tiny fraction of the space to get something reasonable.
Of course not, but if single ionization events can kill a cell’s ability to reproduce (or worse), there must be some constraints. So where do the numbers land?
I’m obviously missing wide swaths of useful information and understanding. But I’ve looked at this for a little bit and haven’t had the epiphany I need for this to click.
The space of possible configurations can be simply huge, but still you can usually find a reasonable (not optimal) one after only a dozen or hundred attempts.
>"single ionization events can kill a cell’s ability to reproduce (or worse)"
Maybe I don't know what you mean by single ionization event, if it is mutating a single basepair then I doubt it.
I think your other point is probably related to sparsity of viable vs. non-viable configurations and the steps needed to get between them. Of course that's complicated by the contextual interdependecies (are you in a mammal's womb or a submerged egg sac) but to your point you don't need to climb mount everest in a single step. Just get from one solution to another and the viable ones will tend to outweigh the less viable.
Appreciate the help reframing it a bit. I'm still thinking it's too complex but at least there's light at the end of the tunnel. :P
Are you thinking there is only ~1/8.7e349236 viable solutions? There is no reason to expect you need to exhaust even a tiny fraction of the space to get something reasonable.