Assuming we're the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization seems almost (though not quite) as wrong as asserting we're the smartest such. In both cases we're generalizing from a sample size of one. For instance, I can imagine a technological civilization that was stupid enough to wipe itself out in a nuclear war, which we've so far managed to avoid; or to destroy its environment far worse than we have. I can also imagine a society that might be able to reach 18th or 19th century levels of tech but couldn't handle calculus or differential geometry.

Looking forward to reading that. This idea is definitely older than this chapter, though; would be interested to know who first made this observation and when. EDIT: [...] -- Reducing Long-Term Catastrophic Risks from Artificial Intelligence (in the PDF, not the summary)