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

242 Pages·1986·4.76 MB·English

by  Carl Sagan

THE DRAGONS OF EDEN
33 Weeks on The New York Times
Bestseller List
Carl Sagan is a very special scientist! He’s that teacher you always
wish you had—and his book, The Dragons of Eden, is a masterpiece
of instructive entertainment!
“Carl Sagan has the Midas touch. Any subject he deals with turns to
gold, and so it is in The Dragons of Eden. Never have I read anything on
the subject of human intelligence as fascinating and as charming.”
ISAAC ASIMOV
“Provocative … Entertaining … Impressive … Even those of us who are
not heavyweight thinkers will wish to pillow our craniums a bit more
carefully at night after reading Sagan. He makes you realize that the
gray mass between your ears is quite a treasure.”
Chicago Daily News
“Not all great thinkers are scientists, and not all scientists are great
thinkers, but Sagan—young, zealous and imaginative—is both … THE
DRAGONS OF EDEN…is really quite super.”
Philadelphia Inquirer
“Daring speculations and great fun … He argues for the worth and
dignity of other species, even unknown species. If the alien creatures
should ever touch down here, Sagan is one of those who would get a call
in the middle of the night.”
The Baltimore Sun
“Extraordinary! … Exciting! … Sagan’s perspective ranges from the
emergence of life on earth four billion years ago to the limitless
possibilities for expanding human intelligence … A masterpiece of
scientific writing for non-scientists.”
Chicago Tribune
“Absorbing … fascinating … The man writes clearly and well and often
with humor … explaining, probing and relating with grace the story of
the human brain.”
Associated Press
“Marvelous! … There are rewards of many sorts in this provocative
book!”
The Wall Street Journal
“A joy! … A Carl Sagan is … a gifted and charismatic figure … he has
become the idol of a whole generation of students.”
The Washington Post Book World
“In some lost Eden where dragons ruled, the foundations of our
intelligence and passions were laid … Carl Sagan takes us on a guided
tour of that lost land … Fascinating … Entertaining … Masterful!”
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By Carl Sagan
Published by Ballantine Books:
BROCA’S BRAIN
COSMOS
THE DRAGONS OF EDEN
MURMURS OF EARTH
SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS
(with Ann Druyan)
COMET
(with Ann Druyan)
PALE BLUE DOT
THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD
BILLIONS AND BILLIONS

A Ballantine Book
Published by The Random House Publishing Group
Copyright © 1977 by Carl Sagan All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random
House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
Ballantine and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
www.ballantinebooks.com
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-53472
eISBN: 978-0-30780100-5
This edition published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.
v3.1
PERMISSION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
, this page and this page: Courtesy of The Escher
CHAPTER OPENINGS
Foundation—Haags Gemeentemuseum—The Hague. This page and this
page: From “The Great Ravelled Knot” by George W. Gray, Scientific
American, October 1948, pp. 32–33. Copyright © 1948 by Scientific
American, Inc. All rights reserved. This page: From The Journal of Cell
Biology, Volume 26, pp. 365–381, Figure 1 (1965). Reproduced by
copyright permission of Rockefeller University and Dr. Elizabeth Gantt.
This page: Reprinted by permission of Science News: The Weekly News
Magazine of Science. Copyright © 1976 by Science Service Inc. This page:
From “Effects of Focal Brain Injury on Human Behavior” by Hans-Lukas
Teuber on page 462 of The Nervous System, Volume 2: The Clinical
Neurosciences, edited by Donald B. Tower (New York: Raven Press,
1975). Reprinted by permission of the publisher. This page: From p. 60
of Mankind in the Making, revised edition by William Howells, drawings
by Janis Cirulis. Copyright © 1959, 1967 by William Howells.
Reproduced by permission of Doubleday and Company, Inc. This page:
LIFE NATURE LIBRARY, Early Man, by F. Clark Howell and the Editors
of TIME-LIFE Books, drawings by Jay H. Matternes. Copyright © 1965,
1973 Time, Inc. Reprinted by permission. Photograph by Henry B.
Beville. This page: From Not From the Apes, by Björn Kurtén. Copyright
© 1972 by Björn Kurtén. Reprinted by permission of Pantheon Books, a
Division of Random House, Inc. This page and this page: Courtesy of Dr.
Beatrice and Dr. Robert Gardner, Department of Psychology, The
University of Nevada, Reno. This page and this page: From “Reading and
Sentence Completion by a Chimpanzee,” by Duane M. Rumbaugh et al.,
Science, November 16, 1974, Volume 182, pp. 731–733, Figures 1 and 2.
Copyright © 1973 by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science. Reprinted by permission of the publisher and Dr. D. M.
Rumbaugh. This page: Photograph courtesy of Dr. fames Maas,
Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. Slide
#7, Slide Group for General Psychology, Set 2; published by McGraw-
Hill, Inc., 1974. This page: From “A New Specimen of Stenonychosaurus
from the Oldman Formation (Cretaceous) of Alberta” by Dale A. Russell.
Reproduced by permission of the National Research Council of Canada
from the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, Volume 6, pp. 595–612;
1969. This page: From a mural by Charles R. Knight. Courtesy of The
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. Reprinted by permission.
This page: From “The Split Brain in Man” by Michael S. Gazzaniga,
Scientific American, August 1967, Volume 217, #2, page 26. Copyright ©
1967 by Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved. This page and this
page: From “Perception in the Absence of the Neocortical Commissures”
by R. W. Sperry, pp. 126, 129, in Perception and Its Disorders, Proceedings
of the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease,
December 6 and 7, 1968, Volume 48. Copyright © 1968 by the
Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease. Reprinted by
permission of the publisher. This page: Originally published in
Neuropsychologia, Volume 9, pp. 247–259. Copyright © 1971 by
Pergamon Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Pergamon Press. This
page: From “The Split Brain in Man” by Michael S. Gazzaniga, Scientific
American, August 1967, Volume 217, #2, page 28. Reprinted by
permission of the author. This page: LIFE NATURE LIBRARY, Early Man,
by F. Clark Howell and the Editors of TIME-LIFE books, drawings by Jay
H. Metternes. Copyright © 1965, 1973 Time, Inc. Reprinted by
permission. Photograph by Henry B. Beville. This page: From The
Conscious Brain by Steven Rose. Copyright © 1973 by Steven Rose.
Reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. this page and this page:
Photographs courtesy of the Computer Graphics Department, Cornell
University. This page: Photograph courtesy of MOTOROLA
Semiconductor Products, Inc.