Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, August 9, 2018



Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors


Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan explains the evolutionary history of life on Earth. Beginning with the process that formed the earth, Sagan describes what earth was like in the primordial Hadean (hell like) period and what conditions existed that led to the formation of organic material such as RNA and DNA. He explains how changes progressed over the enormous expanses of time on the geologic time scale and the basics of earth science including plate tectonics. He explains how the continents of the world were once fused together in a large mass called Pangaea some 270 million years ago and how the proliferation of flora and fauna changed the atmosphere of the planet. Sagan continues to expertly explain the science of how the world changed over time to present day. He explains nuanced scientific theories in such a way that the average person can understand. He discusses many vastly important topics such as natural selection and genetic mutation.  This foundation of scientific explanation primes the reader for the more complex ideas of how evolution has caused humans to develop some unsavory traits like territoriality, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism which had evolutionary advantages in the early development of our species.
The thesis of the book is that we as the human race are like an orphaned baby left on the cosmic doorstep without a note describing where we came from or the instructions for our future.  He writes, “We humans are like a newborn baby left on a doorstep, with no note explaining who it is, where it came from, what hereditary cargo of attributes and disabilities it might be carrying, or who its antecedents might be. We long to see the orphan’s file.” This book is truly one of Sagan’s masterworks and he eloquently fills in the details of our collective “file.” He dispels the notion that we are the final result of billions of years of cosmic evolution and challenges the human vanity that would assume the “absurd notion that our species is the final goal of evolution.”
This book is about big ideas and big questions like “Who are we? Where do we come from? Why are we this way and not some other? What does it mean to be human?” He enlightens the reader on some fascinating topics such as the replication of information which for the last several billion years has been in the form of DNA. He describes how humans are the first species to ever store information outside of their bodies in the form of language, images, and sounds. That has now evolved into digital bits of data that now have immense potential to replicate information. We can only speculate on where this change might take the human species.
Carl Sagan is the master of communicating science to the masses. He is inspiring and entertaining as he unlocks the secrets of the universe. This book covers much of his life’s work, spans eons of time, and countless bodies of scientific knowledge. It is a very enjoyable read and it will increase your understanding of who we are as a species, where we came from, and where we are going.  I give it 10/10 stars.

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