The premise of that series is that except for the original species, there had always been intervention to uplift not just observation. Humans had been a bit of

The premise of that series is that except for the original species, there had always been intervention to uplift not just observation. Humans had been a bit of a surprise because they had no apparent uplifters. IIRC the general viewpoint was that self-evolution in this way was just not possible so there must have been some kind of deception involved.