Were ancient humans less intelligent than us?

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

There is a common belief that modern humans are more intelligent than their ancestors, and that the scientific and technical progress we are experiencing is evidence of our mental superiority over ancient humans. But this belief entails a fundamental problem, which is the confusion between the accumulation of knowledge and the development of intelligence, and between the tools that society possesses and the mental capabilities that the individual possesses.

Man who lived thousands of years ago did not have universities, laboratories, or computers, but he was able to adapt to harsh environments, invent tools, discover agriculture, domesticate animals, establish cities, and develop writing and arithmetic systems. These achievements were not the result of a primitive, incapable mind, but rather the result of mental abilities to observe, experiment, deduce, and solve problems.

Let us imagine a human being who lived ten thousand years ago. He had to distinguish edible plants from poisonous ones, track the movement of animals, predict weather changes, and determine directions without maps or devices. Its survival required complex cognitive skills that many contemporaries may be unable to practice without the help of technology.

On the other hand, a contemporary child can use a smartphone whose computational capabilities exceed those of entire civilizations, but that does not necessarily mean that he is more intelligent than a person who lived in ancient times. The child uses the product of knowledge accumulated over successive generations, and did not invent it himself.

Here the difference between intelligence as a mental ability and civilization as a cumulative result of experiences and knowledge emerges. We do not start our lives from the point where our ancestors started, but rather we are born into a world in which we inherited their achievements, then we add to them, and we may be wrong when we attribute to ourselves superiority that is in fact due to this historical accumulation.

However, the comparison itself requires caution. Intelligence is a multidimensional concept, and we do not have direct tests to measure the mental capabilities of ancient humans. The skills required by life vary according to environments and eras, and it is not correct to take technical excellence as the sole criterion for judging human capabilities.

Perhaps the irony is that modern man, despite possessing unprecedented means of knowledge, has become more dependent on tools to perform tasks that his ancestors accomplished with their memory and direct experience.

We live in a more advanced world, but that does not necessarily make us more intelligent individuals. Civilization does not measure a person's intelligence alone, but it also reveals the amount of knowledge he has inherited.

Perhaps the arrogance of modern man is that he looks at his ancestors from the top of a cultural pyramid that he did not build alone, and forgets that those standing at the bottom were the ones who laid its foundations.