> humans are the stupidest possible creatures that can build a civilization Kind of a tangent, but there are conditions that are not easily described as "intel

> humans are the stupidest possible creatures that can build a civilization Kind of a tangent, but there are conditions that are not easily described as "intelligence" that are necessary for building civilization. Namely, the ability to cooperate in very large groups. Chimpanzees outperform human 4 year-olds in a variety of intelligence tests, but adult chimpanzees are not observed to cooperate to the same degree as humans, or in very large groups. There is also some archaeological evidence to suggest that this is one of the reasons humans were able to outcompete Neaderthals - larger tribes. Individual Neanderthals may well have had higher IQs than their contemporary human rivals.