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The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence (Coronet Books)

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Another take down came in the form of a study published in 2022 in the journal Science. Researchers compared the brains of lizards and mice to see if similar neurons in both species were concentrated in certain areas of the brain. Countering the triune theory, they found that these neurons were scattered all over. There was no clear “reptilian” portion of the mammalian brain. Having a large brain compared to our body mass may be one of the reasons humans have been able to survive and rise to the top of the food chain. It has not been done for our dragon design. Another challenging work is casting the minor parts such as the dragon’s horns, mane, scales and legs. These small parts play an important role to decide how amazing our dragons are so we need to focus on them. We try to highlight the sharpness and make the contrast to the entire part of the dragon. There isn’t much discussion of dragons, beyond a short snippet on Komodo dragons, in this book but Sagan uses this metaphor as a catchy title to highlight that this fear may be part of our own mammalian evolution. The dragon concept is buttressed by so many old tales throughout numerous civilizations that Sagan implies there must have been a fearsome dragon or related animal in our distant past that shaped our evolution. I am not convinced per se but the rest of the book is much more serious than this topic. With this in mind I am skeptical of some of the brain science presented in this book. I do not pretend to be any kind of expert myself, but some of the scientific models presented here may have been at the forefront of neuroscience in 1977, but today have become outdated or even disproven. Sagan spends much time explaining Paul MacLean's "triune brain" hypothesis, where the brain has three largely distinctly functioning areas (the neocortex, limbic system, and R-complex), and also stresses differences in function of the right and left cerebral hemispheres. Those sections still make for fascinating reading as Sagan makes tremendous explanations and draws profound social and historical insights from these models. Just don't think you're getting perfectly up-to-date scientific data. Sagan also spends much of the end of the book speculating on the future of computers and human-made machines, an area that obviously has seen tremendous advances since 1977. He could not have imagined that someone like me would sit at a laptop computer and type away about his book 36 years later. But despite being hugely outdated, I found this section to be extremely enjoyable and interesting because Sagan was predicting a future that now has already happened. Most of his predictions were pretty accurate.

What I do love about this book is the importance of the subject. There is nothing that should be more crucial in science that the study of the human brain. It is what makes humans so unique. Without it and its special properties, the conduct of science itself would be impossible. Sagan makes his appreciation for and the importance of the subject clear throughout the book. It is likely why he chose to write about something outside his realm of expertise. It is also something exceedingly complicated, and as a result even today, 36 years after this book's publication, prominent brain scientists often describe the study of the human brain as in its infancy. The ink naturally poured before the resin is completely dry is an important step to create an Eden effect and make our keycap become unique. This step normally takes about 2-4 hours for the ink drops are falling slowly one by one. 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

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The reason Sagan dives deep into the Cosmic Calendar is that he is trying to show that humans are incredibly new in the scale of the universe. The universe is ~14 billion years old and modern humans have existed for a ridiculously small portion of time. Science and technology can only tell us so much about the past and our ancient ancestors weren’t developed enough to write down their history but Sagan does his best to explain the evolution of mankind through research from a wide range of sciences.

In addition, we apply the method of color mixing by hand-painting and airbrush painting to create a more highlighted effect on these details. We also use UV lighting effects to bring vivid color to our entire dragon. Published in 1977, Dragons was widely hailed by critics from conventional media sources as a “delight” sure to fascinate readers. Some scientifically trained reviewers were decidedly less glowing, however. Sagan’s main springboard for investigating the R complex is Roger Sperry’s seminal work in delineating the separate roles of the left and right hemispheres of the brain. As Sperry demonstrated in amazing split-brain studies, the left brain is more logical and analytical while the right is more synthetic imaginative. Sagan’s contention is that the right brain is really the essence of our reptilian origins, helping us fantasize and imagine, and it’s also a key part of what makes us creative human beings. This is most prominent when we are dreaming. Notice that dreams almost never include details of problem solving, instead they feature highly imaginative scenarios, part familiar and part alien that seem to be largely driven by our fears and hopes: are we partly seeing the world through our ancient reptilian neuroanatomy when we are dreaming, then? Are dreams holdovers from a prehistoric world where, because of inadequate shelter and protection, we had to stay alert and awake during the night to engage with snakes and crocodiles on their own terms? And in the ensuing history of civilization, did reptilian anatomy contribute to our achievements in art and music? Sagan believes that we should encourage the operation of our reptilian brain, constantly tempering its excesses with the logical constraints of the left hemisphere. This distinction between right and left brain behavior also raises very interesting questions regarding whether we can suppress one or another temporarily using drugs and surgery. In fact, it’s likely that that is partly what hallucinogens like LSD do. Here we see Sagan the Renaissance Man, trying to bridge hard scientific thinking with artistic intuition.The average human brain has 10 Sagan also notes that in the story of Genesis, Adam and Eve are tempted by a reptile in Eden. Since a reptile has been the downfall of man once, it’s possible man stays away from reptiles to avoid another mistake such as the one committed by Eve. Either way, dragons can be found inside of people and the outside world. 3) A Few Other Lessons

Campbell, David N. "Fascinating Popularization of Special Interest to Educators", Phi Delta Kappan (April 1978). Vol. 59, no. 8. pp. 567–568. JSTOR 20299094. 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?

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Our brain gives us the ability to think about the future and focus on long-term benefits, but we get a lot of anxiety from it and from thinking about our inevitable end. In fact, despite our incredible capacity to reason, we spend an awful lot of time operating out of the tribal, ritualistic, reptilian parts of our brain. The question of whether we will one day sail the galaxies, or blow ourselves up in a nuclear shooting match (or make our planet uninhabitable through environmental damage), is one that Sagan asked for the rest of his life. It's a question that's just as pertinent today. Sagan’s focus is the R complex, part of the “reptilian brain”. It is quite clear that parts of this brain structure are found in reptiles. Reptiles and mammals have an ancient relationship; reptiles originated 500 million years before human beings, so we came into a world that was full of hissing, crawling, terrestrial, arboreal and aquatic reptiles. As Sagan describes, it’s no surprise that many of the world’s foremost civilizations and religions used reptiles as key symbols; from the snake in Eden to the worship of snakes in ancient Egypt to snake symbolism in modern day India, reptiles and human have shared an indelible bond. Reptiles have also often featured as omens in dreams dictating the fates of empires and societies. Some of our reptilian connections raise mundane but fascinating questions; for instance, Sagan wonders whether the shushing sound we make for communicating silence or disapproval is a leftover of the hissing sound of reptiles. Writing for the New York Times, John Leonard called the book "a delight" and described Sagan as "a scientific Robert Redford, handsome and articulate and all business." The book was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1978. [4] In popular culture [ edit ]

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