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Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

Carl Sagan

Paperback | Pages: 271 pages

Rating: 4.18 | 17096 Users | 659 Reviews

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Title	:	Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence
Author	:	Carl Sagan
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	First Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 271 pages
Published	:	December 12th 1986 by Ballantine Books (first published April 12th 1977)
Categories	:	Science. Nonfiction. Biology. Evolution. Philosophy. Psychology

Narrative During Books Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

The most hauting question that this book poses is this :

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?

For a species that has proclaimed itself to be the rulers of Earth, this is not a very difficult question to answer for us. It is a single word : suppression. We humans never much liked competition from other creatures and history tells us that this was how we overcame all our natural predators through weaponry or guile in the eons past. A moment of reflection on our past brings up that question : why did the other humanoids not survive while our ancestors did ? How did they all gt wiped out ? Natural selection could not have been the only answer.This book is one that shook me out of cerebral complacency and like a good author, Sagan opens the cobweb laden windows of my brain and lets the light in.

This is a book length introspection into the nature of human intellect. From the first tottering steps of our primate ancestors to today's technologically addicted life forms, how has the journey been for that mass of tissue between our ears ? This is what Sagan attempts to answer. In simple,lucid and easy to comprehend prose the author breaks down the story of how our brains assumed today's form and reflexes. It is a tour de force that mixes and matches history,paleontology, psychology and other branches of human understanding to come up with a fascinating study.

The evolution of the brain and how the most primal fears in our psyche still rule our subconscious is a fascinating observation and forms the best part of this book. The aspect of the Triune brain and the R-complex's involvement in human behavior is what Sagan calls the Dragons chained away in the dungeons of our minds. Our basic aversion to reptiles and the dreams populated with snakes coupled with the dreams of a fall from a height are all speculated upon by Sagan in teh backdrop of our dreams. They were quire revelatory and while I might at a later point in time (with more reading)debate these points, they did rekindle my interest in the human brain's inner workings.

I finished reading, put down the book and ran my fingers through my hair and muttered You are a rockstar to my brain. The kind of rockstar who you can never fully figure out is how it might react to that comment !

This book is highly recommended and it is no fluke that I rate all of Sagan's books so far as five stars. This is stuff that will genuinely interest the skeptical mind.

Mention Books Toward Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence

Original Title:	The Dragons of Eden
ISBN:	0345346297 (ISBN13: 9780345346292)
Edition Language:	English
Literary Awards:	Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1978), National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (1977)

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Ratings: 4.18 From 17096 Users | 659 Reviews

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Carl Sagan was amazing!

"Science is only a Latin word for Knowledge and Knowledge is our destiny"- Carl SaganI'll be honest, initial 50 pages of the book gave me all the reasons to give up this and start anew. The credit goes to the biological backdrop of the book but with time, I realized that my age old belief of biology, being an enigma and a damp squib, was based on all wrong perceptions.As the name suggests, the speculation on human intelligence by the author largely consists of the evolution of mankind from Homo

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.

"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.

Carl Sagan mesmerizes the reader with his impeccable research abilities, kneading key focal points in neuroscience with a beautiful literary fabric. He gives an educating tour of evolution and its repercussions on our intelligence, and how it impacts everything we do today - technology, lifestyle and possibly even our dreams. Sagan also has the innate ability to speculate about the future in absolute detail, most of the time chillingly accurate (eventhough it is not his primary field of

"To write a book in a subject so far from one's primary training is at best incautious. But...the temptation was irresistible." That quote, found in the acknowledgements, sums up both the problems with this work, and also it's ironic charm. You must read this early work of Sagan not as definitive science, but as a prime example of his inimitable ability to connect science to other intellectual concerns such as myth, religion and history, thus stimulating thought in the process.At least Sagan is

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