We’re actually among the stupidest possible species smart enough to launch a civilization.
His last sentence is also problematic- how does he know that with a sample size of one?
Plenty of our ancestors failed to launch a civilisation. Correlated samples, but not really just one data point.
No. He seems to talk about the species, and not its members.
http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/04/20/mitigating-the-risks-of-artificial-superintelligence/