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> Cetaceans are said to have consciousness not unlike humans'; maybe they have speech and an advanced culture; we don't know. But they lack means of manipulation and live mostly floating above abyss, so they don't have a material culture and technology.

You refuted your own argument. Sounds like it's more about the "material culture and technology", which started with control of fire.

No living species other than Homo sapiens harnesses fire.

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Australian raptors do - http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.2993/0278-0771-37.4.700

Yes, fire was a key thing in the development of technology, and then (a few hundred thousand years later) domination of the biosphere.

What I mean that animals which did not develop technology may have other kinds of advanced culture, such as that we would recognize as culture, e.g. in social organization and explanation of the world ("philosophy"), and/or art — it they have a capability for structured communication and thus capable to pass more and more complex knowledge across generations.

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