I'm not a fan of the Stoned Ape hypotesis, but it serves as a good metaphor for the human development of the mind and the self.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_7za9D4kk8
As you say OP, we were hunter gatherers for many times the human modern history. Language, meaning, civilization and the execution of human reason over matter to the present scale, it is, in terms of the planet, novelty. A strange strain of collective and individual behavior.
Over the signs we have created a game, economy. Over this game we funded the roots of technology, science and meanings and we are trying to transform the map into territory. We want to become gods.
I have to be honest with all of you. I'm into magick, science and philosophy because I want to beat death. The best shot today is going full Neuralink. I want to beat death, but somebody told me is the worst mistake of the XXI century. Even inside the void, I listen to a voice. An old memory. An old friend. An old enemy.