I'm going to suggest that the way our species became cognitively ‘intelligent’ was through ceaseless reflective immersion with myriads of physically intelligent creatures and biomes. Somehow, nature came up with a way to create a ‘summation lens’ for terrestrial intelligence, and the existence of our ‘mirror neurons’ makes this relatively obvious... we -are- that lens. But we forgot. Nitsipahtsa'psspinnaan.