Up from Dragons: The Evolution of Human Intelligence

by Dorion Sagan and John Skoyles

Book Overview

A breathtaking account of the "unnatural" history of consciousness and human intelligence Taking its cue from The Dragons of Eden, Carl Sagan's 1977 classic and New York Times bestseller, Up from... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071378251
• ISBN13: 9780071378253
• Release Date: May 2002
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 417 Pages
• Weight: 1.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Its a magnificient path indeed

The evolution of human brain from that reptilian is a fantanstic journey. Phantoms in the brain stops short of giving more insights into consciousness, but this book covers that aspect and the explanations are convincing. The role of pre-frontal lobe in unifying our senses and giving us a feeling of self is well explained. Now, I am not so clueless about consciousness, which was bothering me for a while now. The evolution of society and its characteristics was kind of boring for me. Though the evolution of politics/culture is entertaining. This book gives some interesting clues about the origin of self, politics and culture. The examples of primate culture/politics give credible evidence for the ideas put forward. The book delas with questions like, "Why do we sleep?", "Why do we have dreams?". Beneath, all of us have some reptilian characteristics, which are analysed and explained in the book. The lack of temperature control for a brief periods in our sleep is a reminder of our ancestral(reptilian) lifestyle.

The only book on our origins that will be read 100 years on

"The only book on our origins that will be read 100 years on". Surely not? But this book hides the nuts and bolts of a new answer to an old question that will reshape the sciences of human nature - below I give details and let you decide whether this is indeed the next big thing.But first that old question: what turned the human brain -- initially evolved 100,000 years ago to be, and only be, a smart hunter-gatherer -- into a brain that in each of us is superfitted for our hi-tech modern life. The problem is an embarrassment to science. No neurologist or paleoanthropologist can explain why your brain so obviously not evolved to read this, does so, like with so many other nonevolved modern skills, with such great finesse. Human evolution lacks foresight and so could have made no preparation. It is a big question. Evolutionary psychology offers no explanation. But the genius of Skoyles and Sagan provides a clear and plausible account. Before summarizing what that is, a criticism. You start off thinking this is Dragons of Eden: The 25 year Sequel -- but Carl was a science populariser; this book, though averagely well written, lacks illustrations and has rather too many notes and references - more a book for getting out of the library than buying for a holiday read. That said, you soon realize that, with all respect to Carl Sagan, this book is much more important than anything he wrote.Request, even buy, and get it, for its explanation of that old problem. Chapter 14 lays out its core story one which fits together the jig-saw puzzle pieces that the authors have earlier assembled in chapters 3-13 that describe the latest findings in neuroscience and paleoanthropology. The synthesis they offer is a radically novel, reductive and unexpectedly powerful new neurobiological and anthropological theory of symbolism.Two theories intertwine. First, that the radical changes in cognition and behavior that make us unique are piggybacked upon earlier evolved primate cognitions and emotions. Symbols - stand-ins - they show are at the heart of the human revolution. Evolved primate cognitions process innate inputs - but culturally transmitted nonevolved signs can co-opt their innate processes. The co-optation just needs (and humans are good at this) the ability to learn abstract associations. When symbols co-opt innate ape psychology, it is like an engine being put into a new chassis -- ape psychology is refitted thus into doing something radically new -- human psychology with all its nonevolved cognitions. For example, the core process of fear in apes uses the innate inputs of snakes, spiders, angry faces and blood. But humans can uniquely hock on novel sign inputs such as swastikas, the radiation sign, evil eyes and the thoughts of God - and so use them to power the radically new behaviors that make us cultural.But what enables humans to put a new culturally derived `chassis' on the ape brain? Here is their second theory. Symbolic co-optation arose from the prefron

One of the very few seminal books of our time

When Dorion Sagan first told me about his then "upcoming project" with John Skoyles, I decided then and there that it was a book I would order, as I have found his books to be of extreme interest, covering interesting topics, and fantastically well written. Although I had heard of Dr. Sloyles, I was not familiar with his research, or his writing. A dreadful error on my part that I will indeed remedy. I am not a biologist, nor a neuroscientist, although I have a great deal of fascination, and have devoted many years of study toward both subjects. Being a student of life, so to speak, I have read a very large number of books over the past 30 years (despite being Dyslexic) including all of Carl Sagan's as well as Dorion Sagan's books. My home library has been moved four times to different rooms in my home of ever-increasing dimension. As I will now be adding everything I can find by John Skoyles to that list, it may just be moving again. His writing (no doubt influenced by the linear pace of Dorion Sagan) makes for a clear, precise, and articulate examination of intelligence, what is was; what it may be; and perhaps most importantly--where it just might be going. These amazing ideas are not simply laid at one's feet, to be examined "willy-nilly" but are instead couched in the "Carl Sagan" mode of using clear, concise, real life examples, and are phrased with us "regular folks" in mind. I have read a number of "similar books" or perhaps I should say books on similar topics. They were difficult to wade through at best, often used difficult verbiage, and were, in use a term "thick." It was as if one needed a Masters in psychology just to follow the author (I have one and I still got lost!). For a clear, concise look at the history, complexity, and study of the many aspects of "intelligence" one need look no further than this book: it is an entire library unto itself. The very fact that Dr. Skoyles is Dyslexic, and was considered "the bottom of the class" shows again how society often cannot recognize pure genius. There are insufficent "stars" to give this book it's just rating, thus five must do.

The Ascent of the Reptile Brain ?

Championing the ascent of reptiles as much as the descent of man, this thoughtful volume on the evolution of intelligence by Skoyles and Sagan is a welcome addition to the nature/nurture neurophilosophy shelf. The authors take us well beyond the 'usual suspects' listing of gross anatomical brain structure and function of the familiar phyla, traveling a welcome breadth of comparative data to include a wide variety of species (including our earlier selves). Rather than merely outline the familiar shopping list(s) of evolving structures culminating in the development of the modern human cerebral cortex, Skoyles & Sagan do not end with the discussion of its distinctive "associative" or "silent" areas of the brain of old (as so many other authors are still content to do). Instead, and throughout the book's eighteen chapters, we are treated to a series of detailed proposals concerned with the continuously adaptive neural architecture of both the intra- and inter-cerebral structures underlying the evolution human intelligent behavior.Reminiscent of learning the names of Tolstoy's characters in the early pages of 'War & Peace', one meets here parts of the brain rarely mentioned (let alone claimed to be of any significance in explaining who we are and why we behave as we do). Following the publication of this volume, the long overdue and normally restricted cast of human brain features will now include the structure and functional connectivities of the anterior cingulate, the amygdala, the insula, the orbital and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the brain (and these are just a few of the characters amongst many others that might have been introduced here). We may still not be able to agree upon how best to measure intelligence (IQ, in my view, still tautologically measuring 'what IQ tests measure'), but the physiological substrates of the brain supporting intelligent behavior are slowly coming to be located and characterized. Many of the examples and theoretical components put forward may perhaps appear predictable to those familiar with modern paradigms in comparative psychology and the study of intelligent systems (both biological and man-made), but the real strength of this book is to be seen in its successfully discussing adaptive neural systems for the technical non-specialist. The story as told here is a great achievement for a book aimed at the popular science reader.The basic thesis of the book follows the development of the nervous system in the aftermath of the 'KT event' (coincident with the demise of the reptilian dinosaurs), which favored flexible, mobile species with nocturnal, cold-adaptable behaviors, capable of finding shelter and forage. In contrast, species with relatively reflexive nervous systems, whilst satisfactory when situated in a stable, predictable environment, can often fail to adapt to changes within the time course of sudden catastrophic events. En route to the architecture of the modern human brain, we meet the aetiolo

Interweaving of primate politics and brain evolution

This book was a revelation. I had heard that we only use ten percent of our brains but this book seems to prove it. Thirty years of brain research are summarized with a new story of "mindware"--how the brain, in our highly social ancestors, programmed itself to do new things. Mother-child attachments, thinking about loved ones when they are not there, our status as a species which must keep track of others in our heads were all involved deeply in the transition from hunter-gatherer to modern human. Genetically we are no different from our ancestors a hundred thousand years ago. The difference between us and apes is thus obviously not a genetic ones. This excellent book by John Skoyles and Dorion Sagan provides the missing link between us and primate ancestors: the neurally changeable brain. This book has many exciting examples, such as the bull rider whose legs seemed paralyzed in his mind in the same position they were in when he was thrown, the boy who uses sonar on his bike to navigate, and the man who experiences orgasm in his feet. Highly recommended.