In our society, my take on this is that one shouldn't try to understand everything. We get smarter as a whole if different individuals focus on different areas.

In our society, my take on this is that one shouldn't try to understand everything. We get smarter as a whole if different individuals focus on different areas. I'm not saying no one should collaborate, but 6 billion jack-of-all-trades, master-of-nothing simply is not smart enough to care for the next billion. Read "The Shallows" by Nicholas Carr, it discuss this very topic. Humanity had the the same discussion when the printing press became normal. People could start to look up things in books instead of remembering everything (analogy: you're searching the interwebs).