I agree that we lack that broader vision to avoid so many conflicts. I think that “intelligence,” as we usually understand it, is a concept we've created to quantify knowledge, but it doesn't necessarily measure how rational we are. That ability you describe to “see the Matrix” and act with true common sense is what would truly drive us to cooperate and prosper, beyond the simple accumulation of data. I hope we reach that “awakening.”
It is probably impossible to accomplish, but the thing is, that if it would work, we should be pushing to awaken more constantly.
Yuval Noah Harari, in his book ‘Homo Deus’, draws scenarios where biotechnology and artificial intelligence could give rise to a new elite of enhanced ‘superhumans’, leaving behind a vast majority of ‘useless’ ones, if we look at them only from an economic point of view. Is that the future we want? A future where being technologically enhanced is yet another reason to divide society, making the gaps bigger instead of smaller? When Albert Camus said that ‘true generosity towards the future consists in giving everything to the present’, he was inviting us to think about our responsibility today for what tomorrow will be like. Are we really being generous to the future if we let our fascination with technological progress blind us to its possible consequences for individuals and society?