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

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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. Especially, as we have different forms and sizes of the dragon, it takes several days or even weeks to complete all of them without any mistakes. If there is something wrong, we need to spend more time to start again. And of course, it needs not only time but also the patience of our team to make the most perfect one. The love of work is a motivation for our artists to deal with unexpected things. At its core this is a thought provoking book that resonates. It is short at only nine chapters so I will review the chapters here — because many are true gems and the rest are pretty good. Some of the information may be a little dated, and in retrospect, while he claimed Bronowski a little anthropocentric in his disregard for the significance of chimp signing, sometimes he comes across as all too enthusiastic and seems a little anecdotal in his case for chimp linguistics, although there is no doubt that Washoe did sign in the Gardners' program, which he covers in some detail. For his work, Dr. Sagan received the NASA medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service, as well as the NASA Apollo Achievement Award. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named after him. He was also awarded the John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award of the American Astronautical Society, the Explorers Club 75th Anniversary Award, the Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal of the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation, and the Masursky Award of the American Astronomical Society, (" for his extraordinary contributions to the development of planetary science…As a scientist trained in both astronomy and biology, Dr. Sagan has made seminal contributions to the study of planetary atmospheres, planetary surfaces, the history of the Earth, and exobiology. Many of the most productive planetary scientists working today are his present and former students and associates").

While parts are outdated, other parts make for fascinating scientific information that is still just as relevant today as it was in 1977. This book introduces the "Cosmic Calendar", where the entire history of the Universe since the Big Bang is set to scale as if it occurred in one year. The earth did not form until September and all of "recorded" history occurred in the last hour before midnight-exactly the kind of humbling truth that Sagan delivered so well. The parts on primate and early human evolution are fascinating and I imagine would be even more eye-opening to someone who had not been formally educated on those subjects. I love it when Sagan extends the scientific data to social and political issues, and there is plenty of that here, though perhaps less than in some of his other books. 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.Halfway through the book, Sagan talks about dragons and the meaning behind the book’s title. Although dragons are mythical creatures, there are real animals that resemble dragons, one example is the Komodo dragon–a reptile that can weigh up to 300 pounds and be 10 feet in length (oh and did I mention they are venomous?). Carl Sagan starts his book by talking about time and the history of the universe. It may be hard to grasp just how old everything in the universe is so Sagan creates a Cosmic Calendar to better comprehend the length of time. He does this by essentially taking the ~14 billion years of time since the Big Bang occurred and scaling it onto a typical 12-month calendar. 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. This book is crammed full of fascinating bits of information, intriguing theories, humor, vision, and some caustic observations about society as a whole,” Virginia Tech philosophy of science professor Joseph Pitt wrote in the journal Human Ecology. “What it does not contain is intellectual balance and rigor.” What drew Pitt’s ire in particular was that Sagan spent a significant portion of the book trumpeting a little-known, out-there theory from Yale University physiologist and psychiatrist Paul D. MacLean. Triune brain theory Edna was the second eldest with her poise and great improvisational flexibility, having the power to control the rain, wind, and trees. Edna brought rain to cool Eden after sunny days, bringing the shade of cypress trees for the baby dragons to rest and play. Hence, Edna often expressed love to her siblings. Edna’s talent and soul convinced the dragons of Eden and gained the trust of the six Descendants. They decided to give the Supreme Power stone to Edna and made her supreme guardian. The bond that can’t be broken

Carl Sagan served as the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and Director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. He played a leading role in the Mariner, Viking, Voyager, and Galileo spacecraft expeditions, for which he received the NASA Medals for Exceptional Scientific Achievement and (twice) for Distinguished Public Service. This is a book length introspection into the nature of human intellect. From the first tottering steps of our primate ancestors to today's technologically addicted life forms, how has the journey been for that mass of tissue between our ears ? This is what Sagan attempts to answer. In simple,lucid and easy to comprehend prose the author breaks down the story of how our brains assumed today's form and reflexes. It is a tour de force that mixes and matches history,paleontology, psychology and other branches of human understanding to come up with a fascinating study. 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. 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 The many evolutionary steps necessary to become better hunters and tool-makers are described succintly and with a clear idea of how each adaptation builds up a picture of modern humans; the way primates are scared of snakes from birth (the oft mentioned dragons), the function of dreaming in primates and higher mammals and the relationship of wide hips to big brains in humans; a woman with wider hips can give birth to babies with larger brains, so all size zero women are asking for stupid babies, which is quite apt. I have read that there was no actual 'informant' involved with his writings on marijuana, and that research was first hand. Some of the material on the triune brain is covered in an episode of Cosmos, and I'm sure this book fed into the research for the series. Sagan seemed as interested in the phenomenon of intelligence as he was planetary science, and later science education and critical thinking along with his wife, Ann Druyan.

Watatsumi

Dr. Sagan was elected Chairman of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, President of the Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and Chairman of the Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. For twelve years he was the editor-in-chief of Icarus, the leading professional journal devoted to planetary research. He was cofounder and President of the Planetary Society, a 100,000-member organization that is the largest space-interest group in the world; and Distinguished Visiting Scientist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Since dragons aren’t exactly in reality land, we portray them based on our imagination but try to show the mythical beauty and the supreme power in the design. Starting from the idea, we list down plenty of references to go around and then choose the best idea to work on further. Therefore, in our new collection, you can find different shapes and different looks of these mythical beasts. When we complete drawing them, we start to cast them to put into the keycaps. The first step is always a casting process. When we form the shape of our dragon, we color it with different layers to bring a contour effect. 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.

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