Actually nothing changed from a perspective of wisdom / ignorance. In the last couple centuries - certainly, but likely forever. It has not gotten worse and has not improved. If not for guys like Satoshi and Trump, the ignorant masses would have been tricked into a litteral world war like they were a hundred years ago. So they are exactly as stupid as they were a hundred years ago.
They are always fanatic. Only religion is different. Then it was christianity for some, communism and progress for others. Now it is science, progress. Different form, but the principles are the same: blind belief and fanatism, and all that driven by fear. Does not matter if fear of god, of sickness, of enemy, of losing ones face.
Given the number of monuments Ashoka was able to build, one would think that during his times ignorance has diminished in favor of wisdom. But taking into consideration how fast after his death brahmins were able to destroy all that, it is clear that ignorance/wisdom balance had not really changed, only Ashoka managed to gather enough power to rule his way while he was there. Just like now - when good guys get power they do not create war, but it is only as long as they have power. Masses remain ignorant no matter what. They just go to wars when told to, and they don't when told not to.
I am not certain about this one yet, but I have a theory:
Perhaps Harrari is right about one thing - there are genetically two different species of humans. The differencies between them are not like he describes but: one species has "the blood of mountain goats", and the other one - "blood of wild cats". Goats are a dominant chromosome, so there are many more of these than there are of cats. The goats are like goats: they see a piece of green further up the mountain that surrounded by rocks seems tastier and more intriguing. So they go through the trouble of climbing the mountain to get it. Once they are there, they see another one further up, so they climb further. No, they have no clue about beauty, they do not even see nor look at the entire valley, they do not care about the climate. They just chase pieces of grass that is actually not even as tasty as the one in fields below. The only reason they do it is because they are stupid. So are these ignorant "progressive" goat-people. They try to invent, seek something better while not being able to appreciate what they already have, not able to observe a wider perspective, too distracted to be even able to compare what they had before to what they achieved after climbing. So they just climb and climb pointlessly. This is a definition of stupid.
Then cat-people are like cats. They are happy, calm and adapted always wherever they are. They don't care about any progress, but they always are in the best places wherever they are (top of tree, rooftop, enjoying sun or radiator) and they always get the best food whatever comes around. They are always at the top of the foodchain, no other species and no other cats hunt them. Cats go absolutelly wherever they want. Goats move if a cat wants to pass. But also cats are modest, silent, do not cause noise nor chaos unnecessarily.
Cats can sometimes be tricked into thinking they are pets, but they can get back to being wild happy cats anytime. Goats can never become cats.
From my observations during my lifetime, this is genetic. You can teach goat-people many tricks, but they can never become cat-people.
