I was wondering whether high intelligence corresponds to relative egoism or alienation. Humans generally, for instance, are highly intelligent compared to most other animals, and we're also relatively alienated from the natural environment. High intelligence is a matter of plotting with models, which is inherently aggressive and which thus reinforces egoism and individualism.

Modern individualism arose from Protestantism, which weakened Catholic theocracy and helped fuel the revolutions of liberalism (capitalism, democracy, the rule of law).

I didn't say individualism caused the Enlightenment. I said the modern explosion of high intelligence and the freedom of thought (in science, philosophy, art, and so on) corresponded to an explosion of individualism, selfishness, narcissistic consumerism, social fragmentation, and the like. So it was a question of correlation rather than causation.