me: What would you assert are characteristics of intelligence that would be seen in a variation regardless of the agent - God, aliens, collective consciousness, self?
you: I would think that at a minimum, there would be some correlation between variation and adaptation. More targeted mutations and less malthusian wastage.
It seems to me that Gehring's work on master control genes (eyeness evolving concurrently across phyla) along with Eldredge and Gould's punctuated equilibrium observation are sample correlations of profound efficiencies in mutation/adaptation.
Causations being investigated point to a control: on the one hand, mutation resistance in control genes and on the other, metasystem transition.
As we move further into the research, perhaps the properties of intelligence will be apparent in either the causation/control or the resulting adaptation.
Certainly you can have correlation without causation, but can you cite an example of causation without correlation?
The examples you cite are post selection.