The introduction to Carl Sagan's book, The Dragons of Paradise, Reshefim Publishing 1979
The human race hangs halfway between God and the wild beast.
Plotinus
"The main conclusion I expressed in this work - that is, that man is descended from one of the inferior forms - will not, unfortunately, be to the liking of many people. But no one will doubt that we are descended from human beings. I shall never forget my astonishment, when I first saw a group of Phoenicians on a rugged and wild shore. The first thought that crossed my mind was: that's how our ancestors were. "
"These people were completely naked and smeared with paint, their long hair was completely tangled and their mouths were foaming with excitement. The expression on their faces was wild, terrified and suspicious. They did not engage in any art and lived as wild animals from the game that came into their hands. They had no government and were merciless to anyone who did not belong to their small tribe. He who has seen a wild animal in its natural environment will no longer feel ashamed, even if he is forced to admit that the blood of an inferior creature flows in his veins. I myself prefer to think that I am descended from that brave little monkey, who braved his fearsome enemy in order to save the life of his keeper; or from that old Baboon, who came down from the mountains and triumphantly delivered his young fellow from the teeth of a surprised pack of dogs - than to think that I am descended from that savage, who delights in torturing his enemies, offers blood sacrifices, gives his hand to the murder of children without qualms, treats his wives as servants, He doesn't know what decency is - and is haunted by the worst superstitions."
"The proud man will be forgiven for rising to the top of the organic ladder, although he did not rise there as a result of his own efforts; And the very fact that he climbed to the top of the ladder, and was not placed there in the first place, gives him hope for a more exalted role in the distant future. However, we are not concerned with hopes or fears, but only with truth, as far as our logic allows us to reveal it. I have provided evidence to the best of my ability and we must admit. Indeed, that's how it seems to me. Because despite the noble virtues of man. "
"Despite his embracing affection for the lowly, despite his kindness directed not only to other human beings but to the most inferior creatures, despite his quasi-divine intellect, which succeeded in deciphering the structure of the solar system and its movement - despite all the superior power This, man still carries in his body an indelible stamp of his inferior origin."
Charles Darwin
"Origin of Man"
I was a brother to the jackals, and bad to the girls, an ostrich.
Job L. Nineteenth
In a good conversation, doesn't the speaker's mind know the truth of the thing he is about to talk about?
Plato "Pedrus"
I don't know where in ancient or new literature an adequate description of the nature known to me can be found, mythology is closest to it.
Henry Dezid Toro "The Journal"
Gajkov Bronowski was one of those few men and women of any era, who find that all human knowledge - including the arts and sciences, philosophy and psychology - is multi-subjective and attainable. Bronovsky did not limit himself to one discipline, but spread over the entire landscape of human research. His book and his television series "The Rise of Man" are excellent teaching aids and a wonderful monument. To some extent they are the story of the joint growth of human beings and the human mind.
His last chapter, called "The Long Childhood", describes the continuous period of time - which relative to our life span is longer than that of other animals - in which young humans depend on adults and demonstrate enormous flexibility - that is, the ability to learn from their environment and culture. Most organisms on the planet depend on their genetic information, which was "woven" from the beginning into their nervous system, much more than on the non-genetic information, which was acquired during the years of their lives. In humans, and in fact in all mammals, the situation is the opposite. Although our behavior is still significantly controlled by our genetic inheritance, we have been given a greater possibility to break through our minds into new ways of behavior and culture in a short time. We made a kind of deal with nature. It is true that raising our children will be difficult, but their ability to learn new things will greatly increase the chances of the existence of the human species, in addition to this, humans in the last tenths of a percent of our existence have invented not only extra-genetic knowledge, but also extra-corporeal knowledge: information stored outside our bodies, of which writing serves as a striking example.
Evolutionary or genetic change requires a very long period of time. One species evolves from its predecessor for a hundred thousand years, and often the differences in behavior between closely related species - such as lions and tigers - are not very noticeable. One of the latest examples of evolution in the human organ system is the change in our toes. The toe plays an important role in maintaining balance when walking; The use of the other fingers is not very clear. They evolved from finger-like appendages, which were used to catch and hang on branches, similar to the various forest monkeys. This kind of evolution, which lasted close to 10 million years, is like a new specialization - an organ-system, originally intended for one function, is adapted to another and completely different function. (The legs of the mountain gorilla underwent a similar evolution, albeit completely independently.) However, today we cannot afford to wait ten million years for the next development. In the era we live in, the world is changing at an unprecedented rate. Although most of the changes are of our own making, we cannot ignore them. We must adapt, adapt and control, lest we become extinct.
A method of learning, which is purely extragenetic, is able to cope with the rapidly changing circumstances that our species is facing, therefore the rapid development of our intelligence in recent times is not only a reason but also a possible solution to the many serious problems that plague us, a greater understanding of nature and The evolution of human intelligence may, perhaps, help us deal wisely with our unknown and dangerous future, I am interested in the evolution of intelligence for another reason as well, for the first time in human history we have a powerful device - a huge radio telescope - that can be used to communicate over long distances Vast interstellar systems, we have just begun to use it experimentally and tentatively, but at an increasing rate, with the aim of determining if other civilizations are sending us messages from distant and exotic worlds, beyond all imagination. The existence of such civilizations and the nature of the messages they may send depend on the universality of the evolutionary process of intelligence on Earth. Almost certainly, it will be possible to derive a number of lessons and ideas regarding intelligence on other worlds from studies of the evolution of intelligence on Earth.
I had the honor and pleasure of giving the first lecture in the series of lectures in the philosophy of nature in memory of Jacob Bronowski in November 1975 as the University of Toronto. By writing this book I considerably expanded the scope of the lecture and in return I had the exciting opportunity to learn something about subjects in which I am not well versed. It was an irresistible temptation to combine some of the things I learned and put them together into one clear picture, and to offer several hypotheses about the nature and development of human intelligence - hypotheses that are essentially new or at least not widely known.
It is not an easy subject. Although my formal experience is extensive in biology and for many years I have worked and studied the origin and early development of life, my formal education in the anatomy and physiology of the brain, by way of example, is quite little. I offer the following ideas with a great deal of trepidation; I know very well that many of them are only hypotheses and can only be proven or called for on the anvil of experiments. However, this research gave me, unfortunately, the opportunity to examine a fascinating subject; And it is possible that my comments will encourage others to examine more thoroughly, the great principle of biology - the one that, as far as I know, distinguishes the biological sciences from the physical sciences - is the principle of evolution by natural selection, the brilliant discovery of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the middle of the century The nineteen *, the sophistication and beauty of the contemporary life forms appeared following a process of natural selection, of an evolved existence and of copying organisms that were created by mistake when they were better adapted to their environment, the development of an organ system as complicated as the brain is likely to be inextricably linked to history The antiquity of life, to forward migration and to every dead end encountered, to the complicated adaptation of organisms to the constantly changing conditions causing a form of life that was once wonderfully adapted to its environment to once again be in danger of extinction. Evolution is random and unpredictable. We have come this far, including our brains and everything else, solely thanks to the death of masses of organisms that were not perfectly adapted to their environment.
Biology is more similar to history than it is to physics; The accidents, mistakes and misfortunes of the past determine the present. When approaching such a difficult biological problem, such as the nature of human intelligence and its evolution, it seems to me that it would be wise to give considerable weight to arguments based on the brain's development process. My fundamental assumption regarding the brain is that its action - or what we sometimes call "mind" is the result of its anatomy and physiology and nothing else. The "mind" can be the result of the separate or collective action of the components of the brain.
Certain processes can be the result of the action of the entire brain. Some of the researchers of the subject came to the conclusion that the future generation of neuroanatomy scientists will never succeed in isolating and locating the surface brain functions, because they themselves have not been able to achieve this so far, but the absence of evidence is not necessarily proof of the absence, the history of biology. lately They show that we are to a large extent the result of the interaction of a very complicated system of molecules; And that aspect of biology, which was once considered the holy of holies - that is, a quarter of the genetic material - is now fundamentally explained through the chemical structure of the nucleic acids that make up the Mas and Gag proteins and their agents of action - the proteins, often happens in science, and especially in biology , precisely those that are closest
For a complicated subject, one develops a poignant (and ultimately mistaken) feeling, as if it is impossible to control the subject. On the other hand, those who are too far from the subject may make a mistake and exchange ignorance for perspective. In any case, I do not intend to speculate about what used to be called the "seconds of the body" - that is, the idea that inside the body there is a completely different substance, called the soul - both because of the clear direction that has recently been drawn in the history of biology and because I do not have a shred of proof to support the hypotheses these
Part of the fun, even the pleasure. The implications of this topic arise from the topic's connections with all areas of human enterprise. And especially from the possible interplay between ancient and new myths, the title of the book itself derives from the unexpected adaptation of various traditional and contemporary myths to the subject, although I hope that the unity of my conclusions will increase interest in the hearts of those whose profession is the study of human intelligence, I wrote this book for The interested layman. The arguments that appear in the second chapter are a little more difficult than those in the other chapters of this study, but I hope that they will be understood after a little effort. After that the sailing will be smooth and quiet. Technical concepts, appearing for the first time, will be accompanied by definitions. All concepts are all grouped in a technical dictionary, which appears at the end of the book. The tables and the technical dictionary are tools designed to help anyone who does not have any scientific background, although I am afraid that understanding my arguments does not necessarily lead to their acceptance.
In 1754, Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote in the introduction to the "Dissertation on the Origin and Basis of the Injustice of Mankind" "Although in order to correctly judge the natural state of man, it is very important to examine his origins... I do not intend to trace his organization through the various stages of its development... On this subject, only vague and almost imaginary hypotheses may arise for me. Comparative anatomy is still at the beginning of its development, and the distinctions of the naturalists are not sufficiently certain, in order for it to form a sufficient basis for real arguments."
Rousseau's cautionary words were spoken over two hundred years ago, but they still hold true today. However, since then there has been amazing progress in research, both in the field of comparative brain anatomy and in the field of human and animal behavior, a cascade, as Rousseau rightly stated, is essential to the treatment of the problem. It is possible and we are not ahead of the time in our attempt today to reach a preliminary synthesis.
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* Since the famous Victorian debate between Bishop Wilberforce and T. God. Huxley, continues a constant and fruitless attack on the ideas of Darwin Wallace, and especially on the part of those who have made it their philosophy to dig into him. Evolution is a fact for which abundant evidence has been found in the fossil record and through molecular biology. Natural selection is a successful theory designed to explain the fact of evolution. In Gold's article (1976) it is noted in the bibliographic list at the end of the book, there is a very polite response to the recent criticisms leveled at the theory of natural selection, including the fond idea that it is just a tautology ("those who stay alive stay alive"). Darwin was, of course, a son of his time and was sometimes caught making comparisons between Europeans and other nations - comparisons that flattered the Europeans; As for example his comments about the inhabitants of Sierra del Fuego quoted above. In fact, in pre-technological times, human society resembled the emotional, brash, cultured Bushmen-hunters of the Kalahari Desert more than the Faugans, whom Darwin so derided, and with some degree of justice. However, Darwin's brilliance - regarding the existence of evolution, of which natural selection is its main cause, and regarding the relationship of these two concepts to the nature of human beings - are landmarks in the history of human research, and especially because of the stubborn opposition that these ideas provoked in Victorian England and sometimes provoke even today.
