Are people cleverer now than they used to be?

I am, however, really interested in the ways thought patterns change, esp the whole pre-literate thing and the increased reliance on symbol & metaphor and how that's tied to religious beliefs. Not that I've done any heavy reading on the subject, you understand -- but I will! Erm, might.

I haven't answered the orig question, so shoot me -- but haven't we resolved this silly issue already?

That's stupidity and docility are two of the things cows have been bred for. You try outwitting an auroch - the wild cow, about 50% larger than a modern cow and a hell of a lot smarter and more aggressive.

Oh, and with pointier horns too.

I find it astonishing that people did things like build bridges and castles and huge buildings WITHOUT THE AID OF COMPUTERS OR CALCULATORS OR POWER TOOLS OR EVEN ARCHITECTS AND ENGINEERS SOMETIMES in the olden days. Which nobody would even attempt today to put up a shed, let alone London Bridge. (OK, that fell down seven times, but lots of other things are still standing.)

The things that are still standing were hugely over-engineered, mostly by accident. It was only in the 20th century that materials science at all developed as a subject, and engineers started to learn things such as: how dangerous things like sharp steps and corners are.*

Medieval cathedrals were built over several decades, largely by trial and error. If it looks like it's going to fall outwards, you add extra flying buttresses. If the foundations start moving, you either start again or do your best to make stuff lighter (see: Ely cathedral). If it looks like it's going to fall inwards, you try to add flying buttresses on the inside of the building (see: Wells cathedral).

People used to play instruments more too but only because they were desperately waiting for somebody to invent the gramophone.

OTM. Instead of buying an album, you'd buy the sheet music for the latest popular songs and learn to play them yourself.

personally, i despair of "people" ... but that's mostly because i've just had a particularly idiotic e-mail from our IT department, who have sunk to an all-time low.

Hurrah for IT!

* the rules for this are rather non-intuitive. If you drill a hole in a stressed object, the stress around the hole is multiplied by three whatever the size of the hole. If it's a square hole, the stress at the corners is multipled a couple of hundred times.