a consequence of its anatomy and physiology and nothing more" – in reference to the works of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. In the introduction Sagan presents his thesis – that "the mind. The book is an expansion of the Jacob Bronowski Memorial Lecture in Natural Philosophy which Sagan gave at the University of Toronto. In 2002, John Skoyles and Dorion Sagan published a follow-up entitled Up from Dragons. The Dragons of Eden won a Pulitzer Prize.
The title "The Dragons of Eden" is borrowed from the notion that man's early struggle for survival in the face of predators, and in particular a fear of reptiles, may have led to cultural beliefs and myths about dragons.
Other topics mentioned include the evolution of the brain (with emphasis on the function of the neocortex in humans), the evolutionary purpose of sleep and dreams, demonstration of sign language abilities by chimps and the purpose of mankind's innate fears and myths. He argues that the brain to body mass ratio is an extremely good correlative indicator for intelligence, with humans having the highest ratio and dolphins the second highest, though he views the trend as breaking down at smaller scales, with some small animals ( ants in particular) placing disproportionately high on the list. Sagan discusses the search for a quantitative means of measuring intelligence. Special thanks to Fuzzy Planets, Inc.The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence is a 1977 book by Carl Sagan, in which the author combines the fields of anthropology, evolutionary biology, psychology, and computer science to give a perspective on how human intelligence may have evolved. Introductory music from the original score for COSMOS: A SpaceTime Odyssey composed by Alan Silvestri, used with permission from Cosmos Studios, Inc. Carl Sagan takes us on a guided tour of that lost land. In some lost Eden where dragons ruled, the foundations of our intelligence were laid. chimpanzees taught to communicate in deaf and dumb language. He talks about all kinds of things: the why of the pain of human childbirth. How can I persuade every intelligent person to read this important and elegant book?. "A history of the human brain from the big bang, fifteen billion years ago, to the day before yesterday.It's a delight." - The New York Times 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.
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