I'd say humans become slowly (veeery slowly) more civilized with time...

But regarding being deep or shallow, I think humans mostly remain the same through ages. After all, 2.000 years ago people complained about human nature kind of like we do today! :-D

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PS: Call me silly, but I had a bit of an erotic frisson when I read "laudator temporis acti" in your comment :-) A smart mind is a sexy thing to me. Yummy! ;-*