&gt; Genes don&#x27;t &quot;choose&quot; to mutate any more than they &quot;are selfish&quot;<p>True, but to the extent that they &quot;are selfish&quot;, it definitely is true that they choose to mutate, or in less metaphorical terms the mutation rate of a given section of the genome is subject to selection.<p>For complex organisms, you can view this as the genes with high mutation rates &quot;taking one for the team&quot;.