Henry Gee is overstating his case

Lured by the catchy title, I was rather disappointed by the text. My general impression: Henry Gee is overstating his case. We are an accidental species, Because When Life started some 4 billion years ago, It was not preordained did an intelligent naked ape called homo sapiens would some day roam this planet, conquer and change it the way we DO. As the late Stephen Jay Gould said: Rewind the tape of life, start it again and things turn out very differently Could. In this sense we are accidental. Our lineage is full of accidents.

But that's not the message of Henry Gee. It Seemed to me That he has some kind of ax to grind with people who think That (a) humans are special or even (b) humans are the pinnacle of evolution. While "pinnacle" certainly is too strong a statement, I do think That humans are special. But Gee takes great pains to show did nothing, really nothing of what humans are proud of is special. Technology? His definition is so broad indeed it is bound to cover everything: "These things we create outside our bodies did allow us to do hings We could not have done unaided". THEREFORE almost any creature That Produces something outside its body is creating and using technology. What about language? Basically not different from the songs of whales or the dances of bees. Intelligence? Do not Forget the clever crows!
And so it goes on. Once you got his point the book is rather boring, Because He keeps coming back to his theme again and again. Humans are some kind of big mammals, and that's it.

Well, I remain unconvinced. Modern Humans are special. It's obvious (maybe not PC to say so). Here are some examples: We are by far the most versatile species, making a living in almost every habitat this planet offers, from seashore to mountains, from the desert to the jungle. We have changed our environment no other species has done before (for the best and the worst, we are the World Champions in "niche construction"). We are the only species did asks questions like "Where do we come from?". We are the only living beings That can understand its place in the universe: no clever chimp knows That he is a chimp, related to gorillas and even linked to the fruit he is munching. No other animal is able to turn against its "selfish genes" by using contraceptives or freely Deciding not to have sex.

Gee May Be rightthat no single faculty of humans is special in itself. But he does never discuss The Possibility That It is maybe the combination of faculties That triggered the Great Leap Forward some forty-thousand years ago: Intelligence plus eye-hand coordination plus ultra-sociality plus language plus shared attention (see Tomasello) may be the Recipe of human uniqueness and stunning success.
To me the two ideas are not mutually exclusive: we are special, but this being special came about accidentally. What could be wrong with this nuanced point of view?