The Dragons of Eden: by Carl Sagan
In Sagan’s Dragons of Eden, he exquisitely peers into nature’s mind, the brain behind this theory we call evolution, survival of the fittest. He goes through and analyzes the creation and upkeeping of the brain. He reaches a great number of senseful conclusions to achieve this goal. For example, he reasons that the criteria for determining the intelligence of a species should be the ratio of brain mass to body size, not simply sheer mass, which makes logical sense. Unfortunately, a few of his ideas, for example the R-complex, got a tad convoluted and seemed lost. Through and through, however, this book is superb and a must-read for anyone with a passion for science or evolution as a whole.
First of all, our group thought it was a great read, though with some flaws. The evidence he gave did make sense, however, some of it was hard to understand. This was due to his complex wording. This book should definitely try to be directed more towards high school or even middle school students. I was able to understand what he said most of the time. His thoughts and ideas were very good at supporting his statement and the evidence given was a great way to explain his thinking.
His ideas about chimps compared to people were relatively interesting. For example, chimps can learn sign language and use complex reasoning to support an idea. The group was fascinated about how the brain’s intelligence is compared relative to the body. In some cases this isn’t true, but not all mammals birth live young. Ants have a big brain relative to its body that enables it to communicate, however giraffes have a tiny brain relative to the body meaning giraffes aren’t the most intelligent animals. We liked the book aside from the complex vocabulary.
In conclusion, The Dragons of Eden, written by Carl Sagan, shows eloquently the creation of the brain and of intelligence by nature and natural selection. He reasons with a multitude of ideas, as mentioned previously, looking into calculation of intelligence and into language as well as many others. He does this with skill, although it may be convoluted at times. I recommend this book for anyone interested in evolution, nature, life, or science as a whole.
In Sagan’s Dragons of Eden, he exquisitely peers into nature’s mind, the brain behind this theory we call evolution, survival of the fittest. He goes through and analyzes the creation and upkeeping of the brain. He reaches a great number of senseful conclusions to achieve this goal. For example, he reasons that the criteria for determining the intelligence of a species should be the ratio of brain mass to body size, not simply sheer mass, which makes logical sense. Unfortunately, a few of his ideas, for example the R-complex, got a tad convoluted and seemed lost. Through and through, however, this book is superb and a must-read for anyone with a passion for science or evolution as a whole.
First of all, our group thought it was a great read, though with some flaws. The evidence he gave did make sense, however, some of it was hard to understand. This was due to his complex wording. This book should definitely try to be directed more towards high school or even middle school students. I was able to understand what he said most of the time. His thoughts and ideas were very good at supporting his statement and the evidence given was a great way to explain his thinking.
His ideas about chimps compared to people were relatively interesting. For example, chimps can learn sign language and use complex reasoning to support an idea. The group was fascinated about how the brain’s intelligence is compared relative to the body. In some cases this isn’t true, but not all mammals birth live young. Ants have a big brain relative to its body that enables it to communicate, however giraffes have a tiny brain relative to the body meaning giraffes aren’t the most intelligent animals. We liked the book aside from the complex vocabulary.
In conclusion, The Dragons of Eden, written by Carl Sagan, shows eloquently the creation of the brain and of intelligence by nature and natural selection. He reasons with a multitude of ideas, as mentioned previously, looking into calculation of intelligence and into language as well as many others. He does this with skill, although it may be convoluted at times. I recommend this book for anyone interested in evolution, nature, life, or science as a whole.