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The 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
Mass Market Paperback, 288 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 conduc...more
I use big words.
That being said, some of the best parts of this book are the drawings related to studies conduc...more
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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 mi...more
"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 pl...more
Robin
rated it
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review of another edition
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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.
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.
David Kaczynski
rated it
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 weigh...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 weigh...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 t...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...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
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 questio...more
What I liked most was the questio...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 o...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 stupi...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 stupi...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 ...more
Outdated as it is, much of this contains things I had never thought ...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 th...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 th...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 example...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 example...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 gener...more
On the other hand, if you're a fan of Carl Sagan and his gener...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.
I kind of thought this was going to be -- I don't know, something about mythology. Like, Jungian myth, maybe. So I shouldn't judge it for not being the book I wanted to read, but...
Rogers George
added it
The book was published in the 1970s, so the sections on computing and SETI are a bit long in the tooth, and I think we've learned a bit more about our biochemistry since the book was written, but the book as a whole is nonetheless definitely worth reading. The ideas are definitely not out of date. The book is well put together and thought-provoking. Sagan is a skeptic in the philosophical sense: someone who relies on evidence and reasoning rather than revelation and faith, but he does not show a...more
One of the most beautiful things I've ever read came from this book:
"If the human brain had only one synapse-- corresponding to a monumental stupidity-- we would be capable of only two mental states. If we had two synapses, then 2^2 = 4 states; three synapses, then 2^3 = 8 states, and, in general, for N synapses, 2^N states. But the human brain is characterized by some 10^13 synapses. Thus the number of different states of a human brain is 2 raised to this power-- i.e., multipli...more
"If the human brain had only one synapse-- corresponding to a monumental stupidity-- we would be capable of only two mental states. If we had two synapses, then 2^2 = 4 states; three synapses, then 2^3 = 8 states, and, in general, for N synapses, 2^N states. But the human brain is characterized by some 10^13 synapses. Thus the number of different states of a human brain is 2 raised to this power-- i.e., multipli...more
I've read this book during my senior year in the university and because my Cytogenetics professor required us to do so. If you're not into science you probably would have ignore reading this book, but it really does not matter because this book was orgasmic; blissful in just a short course of reading, informative and promising, beautiful and eventually very surprising. Every trajectory of detail will pull your brains and exhibit your R-complex like it did million years ago. Yes, it is so depress...more
I read this when my family vacationed to Lexington like 8 years ago. I don't remember anything about it, other than it made me want to read Cosmos.
I would recommend this book to those interested in a highly speculative supplemental essay (at best) disguised as a novel.
While dated and somewhat out of date, a fascinating and engaging look at the evolution of intelligence. This was a brilliant read and wonderfully written. Sagan has got a knack for wonderful writing and presenting his ideas.
Like all of his books, it is biased and he is not shy about interjecting his own thoughts and opinions along with research and science based information. But coming from someone as brilliant as he is, I certainly didn't mind his take and input.
I did chuckle at his...more
Like all of his books, it is biased and he is not shy about interjecting his own thoughts and opinions along with research and science based information. But coming from someone as brilliant as he is, I certainly didn't mind his take and input.
I did chuckle at his...more
I loved this book! Though, after some independent research, I've learned that the triune theory of the human brain, which features heavily in the book, has since been superseded by newer models, that doesn't diminish the relevance of some of the questions Sagan raises - the development of the fetal brain in relation to the abortion debate, for example, or the association of some of our more barbaric behavior to older evolutionary instincts. It's an excellent, easy read, as is typical with Sagan ...more
I had certainly heard of Carl Sagan, but only in terms of cosmology. I had no idea that he wrote extensively on the field of evolutionary biology-stimulated by his wife, the biologist Ann Druyan. My field is not science, so The Dragon's of Eden was my first encounter with the idea of the tripartite brain. 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 id...more
I like it. For someone who like to read about evolution, and possible alien life forms. It is a thin book with lot of interesting information, stuff you want to highlight and remember for later.
The ending is also very good. Quotating from Jacob Bronowski, "We are a scientific civilization. That means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity are cruical. Science is only a Latin word for knowledge, knowledge is our destiny."
Wonderful. Combining it with ...more
The ending is also very good. Quotating from Jacob Bronowski, "We are a scientific civilization. That means a civilization in which knowledge and its integrity are cruical. Science is only a Latin word for knowledge, knowledge is our destiny."
Wonderful. Combining it with ...more
I now understand the lucidity and beauty for which his books are known! Carl Sagan displays a /very/ intelligent, open, and rational mind with a love and enthusiasm for the subject that comes through in his poetical explanations of how intelligence came about. Extremely insightful with a lot of 'eureka!' moments, he makes the subject very palatable, even for those who may only be slightly interested.
Loved it, will read it again and look forward to his other works (as well as his videos!).
...more
Loved it, will read it again and look forward to his other works (as well as his videos!).
...more
Extraordinarily well written, this book covers the extent of history according to modern science, with an emphasis on the principles of evolution and the progression of man-like species. The subtitle betrays that a lot of the work is speculative, but this is not to say that it is far-fetched. Sagan's ideas are always based upon factual data and are admirable if only for the fact that they are honest and informed attempts. For example, Sagan talks about how animals such as monkeys have specific c...more
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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.
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