First, let us celebrate progress. We now know that over the last century, America really did alter its priorities concerning what kind of mind schoolchildren should develop. We are less concerned that they have a large fund of socially valuable information than that they have a better understanding of complex relationships between concepts (Genovese, 2002). Has the fact that Americans have put on scientific spectacles during the twentieth century made thinking about moral and political issues more sophisticated? There is a prima facie case that it has enhanced the quality of moral debate but no evidence. The evidence about political debate hints at more sophisticated thinking (Rosenau & Fagan, 1997), but shows reluctance on the part of presidential candidates to transcend rhetoric when they address a mass audience (Gorton & Diels, 2010). Fortunately, Gorton and Diels intend to examine political debate in depth.

Recent data about IQ trends show that the twenty-first century may hold some surprises. The demise of IQ gains in Scandinavian countries may not be replicated in other developed nations, at least not until the century is well advanced. Why there is this difference is one of our new puzzles. Data on cognitive trends in developing nations are beginning to accumulate. If we can only integrate these trends with social developments, we may know which nations are likely to eliminate the IQ gap between the developed and developing world, and which will not. One thing is certain: developing nations are not frozen at their current level of problem solving.