No. He seems to talk about the species, and not its members.
I wasn't talking about indivduals. Homo Erectus didn't launch a civilisation. Nor did Homo habilis, Homo cepranensis, Homo antecessor, Homo heidelbergensis, Homo rhodesiensis, Homo neanderthalensis etc. That is relevant data.
http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/04/20/mitigating-the-risks-of-artificial-superintelligence/