> a 100 IQ person now has more intellectual horsepower than a 100 IQ person from 200 years ago That's not what I meant. I meant that "scores" were increasing -

> a 100 IQ person now has more intellectual horsepower than a 100 IQ person from 200 years ago That's not what I meant. I meant that "scores" were increasing - which is the reason for normalisation against present population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Flynn_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient#Flynn_ef... IQ test scores have been rising at an average rate of around three IQ points per decade So IQ in absolute terms has been increasing steadily - but this doesn't necessarily tell us anything about whether intelligence has been increasing or not.