The excavated monolith and one floating near Jupiter are discovered humans, through their technologolical advancement/exploration, but what would that mean for the first monolith that appears seemingly out of thin air? We see monkey group A have one of their members ambushed by a leopard, then later bullied be off the watering hole by monkey group B. What exactly is happening here that would bring the arrival of the monoloth, or would the arbritary arrival itself be the point—some reminder that we could've easily continued being apes without some "divine intervention" level of luck?
If not arbitrary, perhaps the first seeds of pride (resulting in need for revenge) sprouts within monkey group A after being bullied from the waterhole. This idea, (pride as a exponentiating evolution factor) I could perhaps even extend to the entire reason why Dave and Frank are skeptical of that AI that has objectively made no mistakes, and why Dave can prevail in spite of Hal calculated he had no real way back onto the ship (further evidenced by Dave letting go Frank's body?)
Just thinking out out; just saw it again and set my hair on fire.