There are some complex artifacts with nonobvious, or causally opaque, functions in the world that one needs to learn about.

From The Secret of Our Success by Joseph Henrich. Page 71.

Alongside these anatomical changes, our species’ long history with complex tools has also likely shaped our learning psychology. We are cognitively primed to categorize “artifacts” (e.g., tools and weapons) as separate from all other things in the world, like rocks and animals. Unlike plants, animals, and other nonliving things like water, we think about function when we think about artifacts. For example, when young children ask about artifacts they ask “What’s it for” or “What does it do?” instead of “What kind is it?” which is their initial query when seeing a novel plant or animal. This specialized thinking about artifacts, as opposed to thinking about other nonliving things, requires, first, that there be some complex artifacts with nonobvious, or causally opaque, functions in the world that one needs to learn about. Cumulative cultural evolution will readily generate such cognitively opaque artifacts, a point I’ll make in spades in chapter 7.