I hardly know where to begin—and I’m not sure I should bother, since we are not really very on topic, and this has gone on long enough already. Very briefly:
1. Nobody ever claimed that sexual selection determines which mutations occur. Sexual selection provides examples of selection by intelligent agents affecting the course of evolution;
2. Sexual selection is not “happenstance”. Females tend to pick traits that—among other things—reflect male health, fitness, and resistance to parasite infestations;
3. The cases where sexual selection drives species extinct does not prove that no prediction is occurring. Predictions can fail. That doesn’t mean that they were not predictions in the first place;
4. The Baldwin effect allows the fixation of characteristics which are repeatably acquired in the genome. Traits may be repeatably acquired as a result of prediction. For example an organism may become able to predict the onset of winter—and so learn that burying nuts is a good idea—and that could go on to influence nuclear evolution;
I hardly know where to begin—and I’m not sure I should bother, since we are not really very on topic, and this has gone on long enough already. Very briefly:
1. Nobody ever claimed that sexual selection determines which mutations occur. Sexual selection provides examples of selection by intelligent agents affecting the course of evolution;
2. Sexual selection is not “happenstance”. Females tend to pick traits that—among other things—reflect male health, fitness, and resistance to parasite infestations;
3. The cases where sexual selection drives species extinct does not prove that no prediction is occurring. Predictions can fail. That doesn’t mean that they were not predictions in the first place;
4. The Baldwin effect allows the fixation of characteristics which are repeatably acquired in the genome. Traits may be repeatably acquired as a result of prediction. For example an organism may become able to predict the onset of winter—and so learn that burying nuts is a good idea—and that could go on to influence nuclear evolution;
5. Regarding progress—see my essays Life’s Direction and God’s Utility Function.