I am oft reminded, by popular media, of my shortcomings and a lack of insights in various aspects of life. In that regard, it is my personal opinion that no one is really much smarter than another - although we can say that people do not possess equal ability - and that people just functionally excel in different aspects. Whether or not these "skills" possess financial value is a matter of luck and political climate.
I could not reach a personal opinion on whether it is a good thing that human beings live a whole stretch of life, go through experiences, gain a certain level of insights, and then die away. The new people are born a clean sheet, and get inscribed with whatever that exists in human literature and knowledge. On one hand, it means that the starting point for every generation is always the same, and there is the danger that something will just wobble the foundations of what that has been accumulate (think great leap forward) and destroy the entire population from within. On the other hand, it roots out stubborness and many undesirable traits of people with too much experiences and allows new ground for sprouts to grow.
With this in mind, it is my opinion that throughout the ages, the mean of the population is relatively similar. People go about doing things that are relevant to being a human being. Intellectual pursuits, for the lack of a better term, is probably just a layer of pretense being applied atop of regular humanatory functions.
