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In The Cosmic Connection, Dr. Carl
Sagan dramatized for the laymen the search for life beyond
the Earth. Here he turns with the same lucidity and excitement
to the equally fascinating inner world of the mind. In a
breathtaking overview from prehistory to the present he
explains how human beings evolved, genes and brains together;
who our ancestors and their competitors were; how our brains
and the brains of other animals work; and why other intelligent
beings will be sufficiently like us intellectually to permit
interstellar communication.
Throughout the book there are quite literally
mind-blowing revelations about what we have learned recently
of the ability of other animals to reason, what computers
have taught us about the mechanism of our brains, and what
the latest theories are about the functions of sleep and
dreams and the storage of memory. There are also fascinating
excursions into myth and legend and their possible relationship
to recent discoveries. And there are Dr. Sagan's bold speculations
on the implications of these discoveries, and on what the
next steps in human evolution may be.
Carl Sagan holds the David Duncan chair
as Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell
University, where he is also Director of the Laboratory
for Planetary Studies. The author or editor of fourteen
books and innumerable shorter pieces, including the comprehensive
article called "Life" in the latest edition of
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, he has received the
NASA Medal for Exceptional Scientific Achievement, the John
Campbell Award for best science book of the year, and the
Joseph Priestly Prize for "distinguished contributions
to the welfare of mankind." He has served on the faculties
of Stanford Medical School and Harvard University, and during
1976 was with the Viking Mars Project in Pasadena, California.
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