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25th out of 594 books
—
1,311 voters
Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
by
Carl Sagan
Dr. Carl Sagan takes us on a great reading adventure, offering his vivid and startling insight into the brain of man and beast, the origin of human intelligence, the function of our most haunting legends--and their amazing links to recent discoveries.
"A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday...It's a delight."
TH...more
"A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday...It's a delight."
TH...more
Paperback, 271 pages
Published
December 12th 1986
by Ballantine Books
(first published 1977)
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This was an interesting book to read after all of the recent research and groundbreaking discoveries of the human brain. Clearly, Sagan smokes weed. However, there are times when he must be coming off his high that his insights are both subtle and poignant. Oxymoronic, to be sure, but so was most of Sagan's keen skepticism amidst his psuedoscientific platitudes.
I use big words.
That being said, some of the best parts of this book are the drawings related to studies conducted on patients with a s...more
I use big words.
That being said, some of the best parts of this book are the drawings related to studies conducted on patients with a s...more
I'd read this book a few years ago, and loved it. It's a great introduction to brain anatomy, consciousness/subconsciousness, and evolution. An "easy" read, if any book that deals with these types of topics can be considered as such. Sagan is good at presenting complex material in an interesting and palatable way. It made me want to start paying more attention to my dreams. (He also relates one of his personal experiences of smoking marijuana, and his theories of the effects it might have on the...more
"Chimpanzees can abstract. Like other mammals, they are capable of strong emotions.
Why, exactly, all over the civilized world, in virtually every major city, are apes in prison?"
"Humans have systematically exterminated those other primates who displayed signs of intelligence."
Carl Sagan is the best science teacher one can ever get. Even though I am not a biology major, I was able to enjoy this book. A great book where he talks about EVERYTHING that you ever wanted to know about your brain. Proba...more
Why, exactly, all over the civilized world, in virtually every major city, are apes in prison?"
"Humans have systematically exterminated those other primates who displayed signs of intelligence."
Carl Sagan is the best science teacher one can ever get. Even though I am not a biology major, I was able to enjoy this book. A great book where he talks about EVERYTHING that you ever wanted to know about your brain. Proba...more
5 likes
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"There is a popular game, sometimes called Pong, which simulates on a television screen a perfectly elastic ball bouncing between two surfaces. Each player is given a dial that permits him to intercept the ball with a movable "racket". Points are scored if the motion of the ball is not intercepted by the racket. The game is very interesting. There is a clear learning experience involved which depends exclusively on Newton's second law for linear motion. As a result of Pong, the player can gain a...more
Aug 11, 2007
Robin
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Anyone who is curious about themselves and the world
I feel strongly that this book should be included in mythology courses because better than any textbook I've ever encountered it addresses the connections that exist between mythology and science. Not to say that mythology is scientific, but rather the ways of viewing the world, both contemporary and historical, that human beings seem to return to again and again often are the way they are for very sound biological reasons.
5 likes
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like
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Interesting questions on the origin and development of human intelligence. Still worth a read despite lots of progress since he wrote this. Gives a good description of left/right brain competencies. Has piqued my interest in evolutionary development. The guy was taken from us too early but sure made a name for himself in what time he had.
Jan 31, 2008
David Kaczynski
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
young philosophers, college students, anyone who is considering science in their career goal
Recommended to David by:
Dan Loss
This is simply the best book I was lucky enough to receive as a gift. Written thirty years ago, Sagan's principles in science, philosophy, and humanity seem to grow more valid as the years go on. I used to be an existentialist nutcase in high school, but this book straightened me right out. I can't wait to re-read this beauty
The copy of the book I got was published in 1977 and what isn't out of date is wrong. The subtitle is "Speculations on the evolution of human intelligence",
but little in the book is about that topic.
The book rambles from from one subject to another,
from cute drawings by everyone's favorite: M.C. Escher,
to the chemical composition of distant stars.
Perhaps the most interesting part is the chart that shows
Brain mass vs. Body weight.
On that chart moles rate quite highly.
Probably not the point...more
but little in the book is about that topic.
The book rambles from from one subject to another,
from cute drawings by everyone's favorite: M.C. Escher,
to the chemical composition of distant stars.
Perhaps the most interesting part is the chart that shows
Brain mass vs. Body weight.
On that chart moles rate quite highly.
Probably not the point...more
This book is dated, but good. I love reading about research on the human brain. Sagan makes lots of corny jokes and asides that are not really appropriate but sort of endearing. The evolution of the brain is the focus and Sagan talks a lot about the "reptilian" brain, the part that we had before we became human. Also the discussion of what really makes us human is so interesting. On the radio some modern researcher said that the brain is a record, a story of what has happened to that particular...more
A look into the evolution of the human mind. Sagan closes the first chapter giving the reader a perspective on their position in history: If the history of the universe was represented by our 12-month year, the history of mankind would exist in the last second of the last minute of December 31. Exploring the pains of childbirth, warring subhuman species, and simplified understandings of how the human brain works, "The Dragons of Eden" is written in a way that anyone can enjoy (it was a NY Times...more
This somewhat difficult read will certainly open your eyes to who and what we are, and how we came to be the dominant species on the planet. You may find yourself not too proud to be human, as the origins of our much-touted intellegence which separates us from the beasts comes into focus. Evolutionary Anthropology rewritten for the masses, but still sometimes tedious and hard to follow; I found myself rereading several pages just to absorb all the information. I'm looking forward to more Sagan,...more
Mar 17, 2013
Elliot Ratzman
rated it
3 of 5 stars
Recommended to Elliot by:
Phil Straus
Shelves:
book-club
This book—“an exercise in pattern recognition, an attempt to understand something of the nature and evolution of human intelligence, using clues from a wide variety of science and myth”— was the popular science pick of 1977; I am sure it launched a thousand science careers. Sneak this text into Red State high school libraries! It is still in print despite being dated: a time capsule snapshot of the then state of evolutionary science, primatology, computers and brain science. Despite Sagan’s leap...more
What I really like about this book is that it is so easily understandable. Sagan is a talented teacher; he has a talent for transmitting knowledge... The way the book was written is simple, but the matters addressed are not. Evolution, the evolution of brain, intelligence...this is something I always found interesting. I don't have some great background knowledge about it, yet there was not anything that I have not understood in the book. (or so I felt)
What I liked most was the question of intel...more
What I liked most was the question of intel...more
This book had been sitting on my bookshelf back at home, beckoning to me, for many decades. After listening to about three different podcasts going on about how great Carl Sagan in (yes, he is a Dude) and then finding this book (along with The Odyssey) at that Mumbai bookshop I could not resist. Also read during my long sea voyage I intersperced the chapters of this book with the audio book of Dawkins' Greatest Show On Earth (which I'd read and reviewed in paper form earlier). Since it came out...more
Carl Sagan's on a tear again. He can't stop himself, and you can't help cheering as you watch him go! He's a one man demonstration of evolution as a model for scientific method: cook up a whole lot of crazy mutant ideas and set them all free, unleash them on the World, and see which ones survive. ***
Right now, he's working on the Mesozoic, and I'm along for the ride: we've got moronic dinos hunting mammals, which probably sleep all day as a defense mechanism ('cause they're too stupid to be quie...more
Right now, he's working on the Mesozoic, and I'm along for the ride: we've got moronic dinos hunting mammals, which probably sleep all day as a defense mechanism ('cause they're too stupid to be quie...more
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.
Everyone read this book now. If a fifteen-year-old can plow through it and understand the major part, so can you.
To quote what I wrote about it for my library's summer reading program:
"The book discusses the evolution of the human brain and connects that evolution to physiology, myth, animal potential, dreams and computer. Further, it declares science as the path to improving life."
The connections drawn to myth are reminiscent of this article in the Endicott Studio archives. Scientific explanati...more
To quote what I wrote about it for my library's summer reading program:
"The book discusses the evolution of the human brain and connects that evolution to physiology, myth, animal potential, dreams and computer. Further, it declares science as the path to improving life."
The connections drawn to myth are reminiscent of this article in the Endicott Studio archives. Scientific explanati...more
There is something so marvelous about following the trajectory of how we humans have come to understand ourselves, and this has become another milestone in understanding its own subject in an even higher meta-narrative than that self-acknowledged in the book. Eminently readable and thought-provoking, even though I know scientific inquiry and theory have moved much further since 1977, and that much of this is outdated.
Outdated as it is, much of this contains things I had never thought about, and...more
Outdated as it is, much of this contains things I had never thought about, and...more
Isaac asimov is right and I just want to share this quote
Türkçesi aşşağıda;
"On the opposite side of the discussion, the phrase "right to life"
is an excellent example of a "buzz word," designed to inflame
rather than illuminate. There is no right to life in any society on
Earth today, nor has there been at any former time (with a
few-rare exceptions, such as among the Jains of India). We
raise farm animals for slaughter; destroy forests; pollute rivers
and lakes until no fish can live there; hunt dee...more
Türkçesi aşşağıda;
"On the opposite side of the discussion, the phrase "right to life"
is an excellent example of a "buzz word," designed to inflame
rather than illuminate. There is no right to life in any society on
Earth today, nor has there been at any former time (with a
few-rare exceptions, such as among the Jains of India). We
raise farm animals for slaughter; destroy forests; pollute rivers
and lakes until no fish can live there; hunt dee...more
As I was reading this book again, since a first reading close to twenty years ago, a friend mentioned that if he was going to read a popular science book, he'd read a new one, not one from the seventies. That comment kind of got stuck in my head. It would certainly be interesting to read about how far sign language development with chimpanzees, for example, has come, which must have just gotten started when Sagan wrote about it here. But this book is Carl Sagan playing with possibilities. In a c...more
1 like
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Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan stands out from his other works because it focuses on biology instead of his typical physics and cosmology. The book walks you through several aspects of the evolution of human intelligence beginning with a walk through his iconic "cosmic calendar". He then takes the time to explain many of the technical aspects of the evolutionary shift from genetic storage of information (built in instincts) to mental storage (learned behaviors) and later external storage of infor...more
I had not thought I'd be giving this book a 4 *s before reading it, aiming as it did to speculate on the evolution of the human intelligence - in 1977 ... Many things have been discovered since, many new theories have been proved and the overall technologies made new angles available to us. Science in the field had developped - and I thought the book will be a bore.
Yet here I am, even more inclined to ignore the above (true, true facts, all of them, mind you) and give it 5 *s, now that I finishe...more
Yet here I am, even more inclined to ignore the above (true, true facts, all of them, mind you) and give it 5 *s, now that I finishe...more
This was certainly not what I expected. Carl Sagan is primarily known for his television series Cosmos and his work in astronomy. So when I discovered that he wrote a book about the evolution of human intelligence I was intrigued. The fact I found a three dollar paperback copy at a used book store sealed the deal.
Carl Sagan definitely managed to wow me again. The technical chapters about the construct and storage capacity of the brain was really fascinating. Also the last two chapters which spe...more
Carl Sagan definitely managed to wow me again. The technical chapters about the construct and storage capacity of the brain was really fascinating. Also the last two chapters which spe...more
Obviously, being a scientific text from thirty-three years ago, it's not a surprise that some of the business in this book is outdated. The last chapter, which is ostensibly about the future evolution of the human brain, could very well be called "Grandpa is afraid of abortions and the computers".
That being said, I really appreciate the straight forward and engaging way in which Sagan writes about such difficult material. His use of language is friendly and readable, his examples often personal...more
That being said, I really appreciate the straight forward and engaging way in which Sagan writes about such difficult material. His use of language is friendly and readable, his examples often personal...more
An overall average introduction to the brain and the evolution of intelligence. This book is severely dated in many of its scientific claims. I won't go through a long list as I would be correcting basically almost every aspect of every chapter, needless to say this book is older and unlike his book on general concepts of astronomy, COSMOS, this book doesn't hold up quite as well to the current trends and changes in biology.
On the other hand, if you're a fan of Carl Sagan and his general viewpoi...more
On the other hand, if you're a fan of Carl Sagan and his general viewpoi...more
Although im not one for a history lesson on the evolution of man, there is no way i, or anyone else, can resist to hear about the humbling and controversial story that Sagan depicts, because he is so captivating in his work that he actually draws you in to a point where it becomes a one sided conversation. Its almost as if you are given the unimaginable opportunity to sit down and listen to this incredible mind just shoot out theories, ideas, beliefs, and the straight up truth of how we came to...more
I recently read "The Dragons of Eden - Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence" by Carl Sagan. I was inspired by his more famous book on the universe called "Cosmos" which I had read last year. I would personally rate this book more interesting and insightful than Cosmos. Cosmos was expected to be a great book as it was a product of one of the great space scientists ever. Human intelligence and neuroscience had never been Sagan's area of research, which he himself acknowledges in the...more
Like any science book written almost 30 years ago, a great deal of the information in The Dragons of Eden is outdated. This holds especially true for The Dragons of Eden, as it largely concerns itself with neuroscience. Neuroscience has seen explosive growth and revision in the last 15 years.
However, if you keep that in mind, I think that this can still be a very enjoyable read. Sagan writes in a very engaging way. His scientific imagination, his curiosity, his earnest hypothesizing and his abil...more
However, if you keep that in mind, I think that this can still be a very enjoyable read. Sagan writes in a very engaging way. His scientific imagination, his curiosity, his earnest hypothesizing and his abil...more
i learned about the incatricies of the human mind, and how we, as a species, are unique out of all of the life on earth. It is a complex and in-depth look at sociological behaviors, psychology, intellect and thought.
this book is exceptional. and inspite of mildly heavy scientific terminology, is a definite page turner. one reason, I believe, is the fact that it is about our brain, the most complex thing on earth, and the most fascinating thing in today's society. and the origins of our nervous system is told in a fascinating story, giving alongside a hint of how natural selection works, and why men is what men is, why we basically act hasty and irrational, why we are angry most of the time(kind of survival...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Further reading on chimpanzee signing? | 11 | 15 | Feb 02, 2013 09:10am |
An American Astronomer, author, and renowned promoter of sciences, Carl Edward Sagan was the co-writer and presenter of the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, seen by more than 500 million people in over 60 countries.
More about Carl Sagan...
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