The Dragons of Eden
by Carl Sagan

• Rate at which evolution progresses. Moths in England
• Limit to amount of info a brain can store
  • # neurons ~ 10 billion with 1,000 to 10,000 interconnections
• How are we able to assess the accuracy of our recollections?
• Speech - the use of breathing organs to sonically transmit thoughts
• How do we perceive time continuity?
• Probability theory of reality assessment
• Inquiry into the nature and evolution of human intelligence
  • Mind is anatomy and physiology and nothing more
  • Dismisses mind-body dualism
• Typical chromosonal DNA molecule has 5 billion pairs of nucleotides
  • Much DNA must be redundant or functionless
• Human beings average 1 mutation per 10 gametes

 

 

• Epilepsy - electrical storm in the brain
• Reptilian Complex - ritualistic
  • Hypocampus - memory
  • Limbic system - emotions (pschotropic drugs)
  • Neocortex - sophisticated memory and reason
• Sleep - scope may include reptiles
• Dreams - spillover from unconscious processing of day's experience
• Very little reality testing in dream state
• IQ test biased to left hemisphere
• Asserted
  • Right hemisphere - view world as more unpleasant, hostile. p. 201, 180
  • Left hemisphere - our emotional responses very similar to left hemisphere states only
  • Obsessive-compulsives - seem to suffer from a right hemisphere impairment. They rarely make intuitive leaps.
      

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