I really liked "Waking Life" when I rented it a few months ago... My ex-girlfriend fell asleep in the midst of it and when I showed it to some friends, they hated it. ("This movie makes me want to shoot myself in the genitals." as one friend put it. )

I don't think evolution is "speeding up" at all, but who's to say at what rate evolution progresses at any point?

You may find this interesting, however:

In modern memory, the younger generation rarely has had any doubt it is smarter than the older generation. Now, there may be data to suggest it's right.

IQ scores are rising so dramatically, say researchers who study intelligence, that a high proportion of people considered average at the turn of the 20th century would be regarded as significantly below average by today's tests.

"People are smarter now, they know more," says Cecil Reynolds, a Texas A&M University professor of neuroscience and educational psychology. "Children are stimulated at an early age by a more complicated world, fostering neurological development."

More specifically, psychologists cite as likely explanations better education, improved socioeconomic status, healthier nutrition, smaller families, urbanization, even television and video games making minds more agile.

But critics, most of them opponents of IQ testing itself, argue the rise is not so much proof of greater intelligence as it is of greater sophistication about test taking. Moreover, they argue that the increase is evidence of what's wrong with IQ testing.

One explanation for the increase is not possible: heredity. Because the rise has taken place in such a short time -- three IQ points per decade in the United States -- it cannot be because of genetic factors.