Seems decently researched but I don’t know why the author felt compelled to add unsubstantiated and totally unnecessary hyperbole about humans only having succeeded because of imitating the whole shebang. It doesn’t even make sense!
It makes sense to me. When an indigenous tribe has some intricate process for transforming a toxic plant into an edible food, and also has no knowledge of the chemistry, the only solution is to copy the entire process unquestioning.
We see the same behavior for hunting strategies, building strategies… social control.. religion.
That part the author only skipped over, but I think it's likely true: we are the species that does not just learn how to open boxes by imitation, we are the species that starts a cargo cult hoping for boxes to arrive.
In earlier days, we understood very little of the technology we had, even on the highest expert level. A chimpanzee that does not imitate but only watches to pick up the elements it understands would never be able to become bronze age, no matter the abundance of ore and fuel. The human on the other hand apparently has the ability to trust the unknown and try.
Imitating the whole thing is critical when you don't really understand what is important. For example, Manioc requires a seemingly arbitrary and elaborate series of steps to prepare so it's not (long-term) poisonous. https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/06/04/book-review-the-secret...
