The people at http://www.edge.org/ have a programme:

"To arrive at the edge of the world's knowledge,

to seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds,

put them in a room together, and have them ask

each other the questions they are asking themselves."

Sounds like a plan.  But does such a plan presuppose that only today's thinkers are able to ask interesting or relevant questions?  I'd dearly like to know what, for example, the Incas or the Sumerians thought were good questions.  But there's no denying that at Edge, they do ask some such questions.