> In physics, it's only half-kiddingly said that there are only
> three answers:
> 0, 1 and infinity. In this case, the answer is 1. If some
> form of "barb of
> selection" exists, which might be some form of physical
> condensate or the
> differential survival of some favored but exceedingly rare genetical
> combination, no matter how rare that favored circumstance
> might be, its
> existence becomes as near certainty as you would care to
> imagine, given that
> you can take a sufficient number of shots at it.

For those who don't follow this sort of thing, this approach of "if it can
happen, it will happen" appears all over the place in subatomic/quantum
physics. Specifically, in the form of "If it can happen, it *has* happened;
let's go find the evidence." This is how, for example, the neutrino was
discovered. The neutrino's existence was postulated back near the turn of
the century (by Fermi?). But the proposed characteristics of the neutrino
were such that interactions would be extremely rare: the mean free path of
the neutrino--in lead--is 22 light years! However, the theories also said
that there would be a lot of them coming by, to the tune of 60 billion per
square centimeter of surface per second. So, even with the incredibly low
interaction rate, there should still be a couple of dozen detectable
interactions a day in a detector of buildable size. So, they built one, and
watched. Sure enough, the expected interaction byproducts showed up.

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