Average intelligence quotient (IQ) scores have been rising throughout the 20th century and likely before--a pattern now known as the Flynn effect. The central thesis of this paper is that the Flynn effect does not represent genuine increases in general intelligence but rather an increasing aptitude for the types of modern thinking that modern life requires and that IQ tests measure. Several lines of evidence are discussed in favor of this view. Implications for the theory of intelligence, recent history, and the human mind, more generally, are discussed.