The Dragons of Eden Review

Noah Gersh, Jenna Beales, Ethan Danziger

Many people consider non fiction books about science boring, but here is a book
to prove them all wrong. The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan covers a lot of interesting
material, but the main focuses of the book were human brain activity, how traits are
passed down through evolution, and where our intelligence came from.
The book talks about some very fascinating topics regarding how human
intelligence evolved. The book discusses metaphors such as the cosmic calendar. The
cosmic calendar is a way to represent the entire time of the universe from the big bang
to modern day. In this calendar every 24 days is one billion years. The big bang was on
January 1st and the dinosaurs only showed up on Christmas Eve. According to the
calendar, all of human history fits within the last ten seconds of the year. The book uses
simple comparisons and descriptions to explain complicated concepts, which makes it
very easy to understand and learn what is happening.
One of the most fascinating things the book explored were the results of different
experiments to discover which parts of the brain control what functions. For example,
the R-complex is the old brain and has been shown to play an important role in
aggressive behavior, territoriality, ritual, and the establishment of social hierarchies. It is
also mentioned that, although the R-complex is arguably the most ancient section of the
human brain, with each new step in brain evolution there are changes to the preexisting
elements of the brain. The Limbic System is generally credited with controlling emotion.
The Neocortex gives the ability to judge a situation and think ahead as well as to retain
memory. It also allows us to connect auditory and visual stimuli, thus allowing us to
have language. Through this, the Limbic System, and the Neocortex, Sagan
demonstrates the Triune Brain.
The entire book was very informative. It was very easy to understand all the
material because it was all explained in concise and relatively simple language. Sagan
masterfully explains these metaphors and other key ideas to bring to the lay-people a
greater understanding of intelligence, brains, and their evolution in the human species.
Not only was The Dragons of Eden simple to understand, it also was not overly
serious. In describing the correlation between brain mass and intelligence Sagan
questions the gigantic brain of a sperm whale: What does the whale do with so
massive a brain? Are there thoughts, insights, arts, sciences and legends of the sperm
whale? To furthermore discuss this issue, he makes correlations between body and
brain mass ratios and how the number of neural synapses affects the number of states
a brain has. In essence, the sperm whales brain to body ratio shows that it does not
have sciences and legends.

Something that really struck me while reading Dragons of Eden was a quote from
a patient I was born with glass bones and paper skin. Every morning I break my legs.
And every afternoon I break my arms. At night, I lay awake in agony until my heart
attacks put me to sleep.
Through Carl Sagans language and the information he presents, his book The
Dragons of Eden explains to the masses many unknown or vague concepts. This book
is excellent and highly recommended as an educational read, because of the interesting
points brought up by Sagan and how comprehensible they are. Sagan brings light to the
evolution of human intelligence, and to human intelligence in general, borrowing
examples from animals as reference. He shows the scope of human life through the
cosmic calendar. This book magnificently shows and explains how humans develop.
Carl Sagans book The Dragons of Eden is a fascinating read due to the intriguing
topics he covers and his easily understood writing style.