As humanity moves onto more and more advanced and automated processes we see less and less effort from the masses to learn about how and why everything works. More and more toys are introduced in our lives and this results to having less time spend in understanding them. This overall results in skin deep comprehension about how the world works.
If we took a human from the Stone Age and introduced them in our society, they would have the same chances in understanding how everything works as we do. The human brain has not evolved almost at all since then. Human intelligence evolves over long periods of time and no significant development has been made since the dawn of human civilisation which started just 8000 years ago.
The human brain works much like a series of backups. The current generation builds up on the previous generation and through this incremental advancement we are able to build new ideas upon previous ones without starting all over again. This is also how we are able to watch television without having a clue how it works. Most things and concepts around us are mere toys/concepts ready to be consumed rather than understood. "We" have not gone to the moon or discovered fire. "We" mainly use things other have shown us.
This mentality of abundance and exploitation reflects on our relationships as well. Most people prefer large circles, prefering to know as many people as possible. Eventfully this results to less understanding of each individual. Much like the technological toys we only end up knowing how to use people superficially without bothering in understanding them.
Those who chose to lead a minimalist life eventually start investigating the few things around them. Less objects and/or people lead to more understanding in how they operate. Our focus becomes sharper and our relationship with the world enriched. This is what people also confuse as intelligence. Most people are considered intelligent because they focus on one thing and one thing only. They become experts in understanding how it works and this deep knowledge reflects as intelligence. The opposite is also evident. Most people are lost in the clutter of social media, friends and gadgets and so their understanding seems basic or in plain words, stupid. This is also how many autistics and social recluses appear smart. They just keep focusing on one thing almost obsessively and thus they become really good at it.
Perhaps the most obvious example of future stupidity is the development of blockchain technologies. Cryptocurrencies are all about decentralisation and ensuring one's security by empowering self independence. Yet, most people today choose Coinbase and other centralised entities to hold the keys for them. Decentralisation is more like a path for the very few, almost an idealistic political movement rather than technological innovation. Most people still want centralised control and minimal responsibility because they can't trust themselves and rather prefer to accuse others for their shortcomings. This is how and why we are still stuck with the same political system for centuries now. This is how and why tribalism prevails.
As civilisation progresses less and less effort will be required from the masses since the thinking will be done by the technological innovations around us. Intelligence is nothing more than training ones synapses to fire efficiently when introduced to stimuli. The more the random stimuli in ones environment, the less the accurate response. The movie Idiocracy might have actually got it right. The future of humanity will be more technologically advanced but the majority of people would require others to do the thinking for them.
