The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

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Science is just a Latin word for Knowledge is how he chose to envelop the ending of this book and I choose to wrap up this review of mine by expressing my gratitude for, first and foremost, the existence of such a brilliant human being, scientist and the most prolific advocate and proponent for the acquisition and expansion of our knowledge and understanding of the physical world around us. The idea does not originate with Sagan, as he himself points out, but this slender volume makes the idea quite assessable for the lay person and, more importantly, it creatively explores the idea's possible implications. Even at this moment when anyone would be forgiven for turning away from the reality of our situation, Carl was unflinching.

A central theme of Sagan's book is the idea that what makes humans special is how we harness the split in our minds. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Today it's rarer today to see someone with knowledge both deep and wide in so many subjects — from mythology, to art, to molecular biology and astronomy — form theories and opinions on some of our biggest questions as a species.He also talks about the mysterious communication used by whales and dolphins that still defies comprehension. It is made attainable to all levels of intellect by this deft cadence and performance Additionally, this particular performance makes the book enjoyable and as captivating as if being read by its own author. Mammals begin to roam Earth by December 26th but it isn’t until December 31st that the first humans can be found on Earth.

Carl Sagan was Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. When scientists began teaching apes to sign, it became clear that our linguistic abilities might have more to do with having the right muscles and anatomy to support vocalizations than it has to do with superior intellectual abilities. This part provides a good segue into the even more interesting part of the book which deals with some fascinating speculations on the reptilian origins of human intelligence. I have read Dragons of Eden several times, always a joy to be immersed in Sagan's clear headed thought and conclusions.Book was listed as 'very good' condition, but when it arrived the cover had stains, creases and folds, and a small tear on one edge. The book is an expansion of the Jacob Bronowski Memorial Lecture in Natural Philosophy which Sagan gave at the University of Toronto. Presents an overview of human evolution and discusses human and animal intelligence, the mechanisms of the brain, memory, sleep, myths and legends about evolution, and the possibility of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Clearly apes can come quite close to using the kind of simple vocabulary that humans do, so why are humans the only ones which actually crossed the language barrier, profiting from breakthrough linguistic inventions like recursive embedding and complex sentence construction?

The many evolutionary steps necessary to become better hunters and tool-makers are described succintly and with a clear idea of how each adaptation builds up a picture of modern humans; the way primates are scared of snakes from birth (the oft mentioned dragons), the function of dreaming in primates and higher mammals and the relationship of wide hips to big brains in humans; a woman with wider hips can give birth to babies with larger brains, so all size zero women are asking for stupid babies, which is quite apt.Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology.