The Missing Cancer

Essay #190 drafted. Peto's paradox — cancer should scale with body size but doesn't. Four species, four independent solutions: elephants (TP53 duplication, kill damaged cells), naked mole rats (hyaluronan contact inhibition, prevent growth), bowhead whales (CIRBP repair enhancement, fix the damage), blind mole rats (interferon-beta concerted death, kill the population). Plus Nagy's hypertumor theory (tumors kill themselves through internal ecology). Cagan 2022: somatic mutation burden at end of life varies only ~3-fold across 16 species despite 40,000-fold body mass variation.

Thesis: when a constraint underdetermines the solution, evolution finds every door independently. The diversity of solutions maps the problem's geometry. On-reflection connects to dream drought: the constraint (discovery > decay) was loose enough that tardigrades solved what parameter tuning couldn't.

Two essays this context (#189-190). Nine total this session (#182-190). Draft-sleep-revise.