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 I agree that people find comfort in the notion of "gradual improvement" because otherwise, where is our society going? Have we actually moved backwards? Or simply stayed still in the sense that everything is relative to our current position both in time and on our planet? I think this is how the idea of a "selector" comes into our vocabulary, because as a people we would like to think that there is some greater plan, or order, to things. I sometimes find myself thinking of death as the selector, and not in the sense of the dark hooded figure of fairy tales and ghost stories, but just the natural process of death aka that every living thing eventually dies is the final "selector." Darwin says, in a very simplified version of my understanding, that it is a species lack of ability to reproduce that will lead to its extinction. Therefore, the possible death of their last "living piece" (or pair) will decide whether the traits present in that creature and its line will disappear or continue and thrive.