The product of intellectualism and how far advanced our comprehension is determined by which the products of society deem it as. Without the social machine intact your opinions nor your ideas would play any important role. People say that language is the tool in which we use to communicate with one another but it's also the tool in which we use to know ourselves.
Take for example Einstein. IF he was thrown into the woods, no knowledge of language or society he wouldn't be able to form ideas of relativity nor would he scribble mathematical equations on trees. He would be lucky to poke a stick through a rabbit's ass and roast it on a fire (in which he would have to figure out how to create the latter).
The civilization that we currently live in... we see it more advanced than previous times however human civilization isn't that old. The oldest records of an advanced civilization as close to the current ones that exist in present times would be The founding of the Roman empire, 21st of April 753 BC. But in terms of oldest civilizations that existed... the first being Sumer, that has a documented language. So in terms of technology and how far advanced our society is, barely even scratches the surface, in terms of what we could accomplish in the next couple of thousand years. If human civilization can live, endure and adapt to the changes that the planet and ourselves throw at us.
The individualism of humanity does not technically exist for our personal opinions and our knowledge are merely different fragments from different people. Without the influence of different human beings we would be stripped of ourselves and only a shell would exist.
