Mankind has unravelled the human genome, opening up the possibility of combating genetically inherited disease. Scientists recently tracked an asteroid and pinpointed where it would strike the Earth to the nearest kilometre. And yet every Saturday night, in towns up and down the country, people fight like animals in the street after quaffing far too much drink. Human progress?

As a species, we know how to mass-produce highly nutritious food on a mammoth scale, yet millions go hungry every day. We produce amazingly talented writers and poets, but vast swathes of humankind remain illiterate. It seems that as we humans continue our upward trajectory in terms of modern measures of progress, we constantly overlook the huge discrepancies on this planet of ours. Basic animal traits like survival of the fittest never lurk far behind our greatest achievements.

So this week's question is: are we humans becoming more intelligent?

• Are there as many great minds today as there were in the past?

• We've certainly made tremendous advances in medicine, engineering, entertainment; but are we philiosophically more evolved? Do we understand why we're here on earth any more than we did before? Are we happier?

• Is kindness a high form of intelligence?

• What is intelligence anyway? Were cavemen intelligent? Is it simply impossible to judge, particularly across the ages?

• Is the encroaching climate crisis evidence of a lack of real intelligence especially if one future outcome is that we won't be able to live on the planet anymore? Or is our ability to deal with this problem a sign of how our intellignece will actually win out at that end of the day?

• Or are we are becoming more clever as a species but that it's greed that is holding us back?

• Are we too thick to know?