[fredfish]

I don't think having a lot of information is intelligence. Plenty of medieval peasants were stupid and a small percentage could combine information into new things for the idiots around them to repeat. During a short period copied behavior traveled less well and it was more obvious how stupid the median person was.

[roland35]

I'd argue that an idiot peasant who sees something that works and adopts it is smarter than the anti science people we have yammering on social media right now!

[fredfish]

Petrol protectionism or religious fervor both have a risk of an overall suboptimal while delivering substantial relative benefit to specific groups and their members if they can maintain the absurdity.