You suggest that we are destined to the stewards of Gaia. I go further, but thats another story connected to the entheogenic experience. My question then can be put, at last, as follows. Obviously the evolution of Gaia is indeed a capacity of Nature, but what I mean here is that this capacity is an intentional one scripted as it were into the underlying laws of the Universe. It's a big metaphysical question.
Evolution is a smart process.
After all, even if you deny this, you must concede that evolution has led to organic brains endowed with consciousness which can do the denying - which sounds odd when you think about it. So, to reiterate, I believe Nature to be inherently smart and intentful with we conscious beings having an important function within the Gaian system fostered by Nature - a function possibly connected to the development of interconnected computer telecommunications which, in terms of information processing, would appear to be the latest and most profound aspect of Nature's unfolding potential here in this corner of the Universe. And its not just that something exists. Its astounding that the something should be such that objects like stable stars form due to the various physical properties of hydrogen in conjunction with the force of gravity. And that a natural system as magnificent as Gaia should somewhere emerge with its diverse ability to nourish evolution - a scenario which was literally poised to emerge.