dragons of eden speculations on the evolution of human intelligence

It is not what we look like that specifies our humanity, but what we are. Likewise, an extraterrestrial intelligent being who did not resemble human beings but who had ethical, intellectual and artistic accomplishments exceeding our own should certainly fall within our prohibitions against murder. Surely not having a human shape, because an artifact of organic materials that resembled a human being but was constructed for the purpose would certainly not be considered human. This in turn rests on what we mean by human. “The key practical question is to determine when a fetus becomes human. Am I committing mass murder if I prick my finger and lose a drop of blood?” If so, any cell in my body has the potential to become a human being if properly preserved until the time of a practical cloning technology. In addition, it is possible that in the not-too-distant future we may be able to clone a whole human being from a single cell taken from essentially anywhere in the donor’s body. In a single ejaculation there are enough spermatozoa for the generation of hundreds of millions of human beings.

Yet male masturbation and noctural emissions are generally considered natural acts and not cause for murder indictments. Any human egg or sperm under appropriate circumstances has the potential to become a human being. “The argument about the “potential” to be human seems to me particularly weak. I do not claim to have the answer, but I think it is certainly worthwhile to raise the question: Why, exactly, all over the civilized world, in virtually every major city, are apes in prison?”Įach question is sharp enough for us to rejudge our intelligence and humanity, to reconsider where the position of chimpanzee is in our “Intelligence” table rank, and what we should do about the cruelty which is being done by their cousins, us human. Like other mammals, they are capable of strong emotions. “If chimpanzees have consciousness, if they are capable of abstractions, do they not have what until now has been described as “human rights”? How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder? What further properties must he show before religious missionaries must consider him worthy of attempts at conversion?” Next, he discussed the basic understandings of complexity of the genes and brains of human and beasts.

It starts off with Sagan’s iconic Cosmic Calendar, which is helpful when we want to put our early development relative to the cosmic time into comprehensible perspectives. “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence” is my ninth Carl Sagan’s book I’ve read so far. Dragons of Eden Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan

Dragons of eden speculations on the evolution of human intelligence