The failure modes of the human body are many and it seems that if I were to start with the assumption that some wonky kludge had been implemented for each of them it would be easier to understand. In the case of insulin, it would seem at first glance that a cell has no resistance to sugar overload, that the intestines have no limit to their absorption of what it considers good and as a result the body is poisoned by too much goodness. So instead of having a cell that stops eating as a design parameter when it would die, or stop absorbing when the concentration in blood is lethal, I create a separate mechanism that controls the sugar in the blood.
I would guess that this is in fact a survival point even though it is a ridiculous way to operate a system. If you consider the fact that all life is in competition then it makes sense that every bit of fuel that could be used to compete with you is exhausted. Also the individual needs of the cell could not be differentiated without causing some other failure.
The system does work for the purpose intended and manages to replicate in vast numbers, but in doing so achieves a single purposed goal that has no relationship to the goals that might develop in a self-conscious organism. Any attempt to influence the process that transpires in biological systems toward any other goal is pointless. It simply reduces the fitness to survival and gets corrected by time. Fiddling with such a system just causes delays and work-arounds. Strangely the Internet functions in that way also. It isn't as resilient in design as the biology, and certainly could be bottled up enough to destroy the utility eventually. It is like getting a property deed from the town bully. He takes it back every once in a while when he needs more money.
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