Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
Prologue: The Orphan’s File
Page: 20 (4.45%) @ 12 Jul 2025 03:58:06 AM
Who are we? The answer to this question is not only one of the tasks, but the task of science.
6 Us and Them
Page: 116 (27.36%) @ 29 Nov 2025 02:12:06 AM
In the annals of primate ethics, there are some accounts that have the ring of parable. Consider, for example, the macaques. Also known as rhesus monkeys, they live in tightly knit cousins’ clubs. Since the macaque you save is statistically likely to share many of your genes (assuming you’re another macaque), you’re justified in taking risks to save it, and a fine discrimination of shades of consanguinity is unnecessary. In a laboratory setting, macaques were fed if they were willing to pull a chain and electrically shock an unrelated macaque whose agony was in plain view through a one-way mirror. Otherwise, they starved. After learning the ropes, the monkeys frequently refused to pull the chain; in one experiment only 13% would do so—87% preferred to go hungry. One macaque went without food for nearly two weeks rather than hurt its fellow. Macaques who had themselves been shocked in previous experiments were even less willing to pull the chain. The relative social status or gender of the macaques had little bearing on their reluctance to hurt others.
If asked to choose between the human experimenters offering the macaques this Faustian bargain and the macaques themselves—suffering from real hunger rather than causing pain to others—our own moral sympathies do not lie with the scientists. But their experiments permit us to glimpse in non-humans a saintly willingness to make sacrifices in order to save others—even those who are not close kin. By conventional human standards, these macaques—who have never gone to Sunday school, never heard of the Ten Commandments, never squirmed through a single junior high school civics lesson—seem exemplary in their moral grounding and their courageous resistance to evil.
10 The Next-to-Last Remedy
Page: 178 (41.98%) @ 18 Jan 2026 03:03:58 AM
If ever there was an avian candidate for psychotherapy, the male blue heron is our nominee.
Page: 183 (43.16%) @ 18 Jan 2026 03:25:12 AM
Those groups that incline to xenophobic paranoia might gain a cohesive advantage over groups that are initially more realistic and carefree. If you’ve exaggerated the threat, at least you’ve reduced internal tensions in your group; and if the external threat is more serious than you’ve privately estimated, your preparedness is higher. As long as the social costs stay within reasonable bounds, it may become a successful survival strategy. So there’s a kind of contagion about xenophobia.
11 Dominance and Submission
Page: 201 (47.41%) @ 22 Jan 2026 02:37:31 AM
Racism, sexism, and a toxic mix of xenophobias still powerfully influence action and inaction. But one of the proudest achievements of our own age is the developing global consensus—despite many false starts—that we’re at last ready to leave behind this vestige of long ago. Many ancient voices speak within us. We are capable of muting some, once they no longer serve our best interests, and amplifying others as our need for them increases. This is cause for hope.
15 Mortifying Reflections
Page: 249 (58.73%) @ 08 Feb 2026 01:36:05 PM
Darwin wrote telegraphically in his 1838 “M” notebook: “Origin of man now proved … He who understands baboon would do more towards metaphysics than [the philosopher John] Locke.” But what does it mean to understand a baboon?
Page: 250 (58.96%) @ 08 Feb 2026 01:38:46 PM
One of the earliest scientific studies of the chimpanzee in its natural African habitat was made by Thomas N. Savage, a Boston physician. Writing in early Victorian times, he concluded:
They exhibit a remarkable degree of intelligence in their habits, and, on the part of the mother, much affection for their young … [But] they are very filthy in their habits … It is a tradition with the natives generally here, that they were once members of their own tribe: that for their depraved habits they were expelled from all human society, and, that through an obstinate indulgence of their vile propensities, they have degenerated into their present state and organisation.
The idea that Africans are very close to apes was pretty prevalent. Even, relatively recently, we can see in Tintin comics Africans are drawn as monkeys, less intelligent, etc. This bias was only against Africans. The author has drawn the Red Indians perfectly.
Page: 259 (61.08%) @ 08 Feb 2026 09:44:17 PM
Beneath a thin varnish of civilization, it sometimes seems, there’s a chimp struggling to bust out—to take off the absurd clothes and the restraining social conventions and let loose.
16 Lives of the Apes
Page: 280 (66.04%) @ 15 Feb 2026 07:17:00 PM
It is astonishing that so striking a characteristic of chimpanzee life in the wild as male sexual oppression of females can to such an extent be reversed merely because they’re all crowded together in a minimum security prison. We’ve already seen how, under these conditions, restraint, coalition building, and peacemaking by females come to the fore. Societies in which females have something approaching equality are also societies that benefit from their political skills.
17 Admonishing the Conqueror
Page: 296 (69.81%) @ 26 Feb 2026 12:12:55 AM
For a society to be successful, it must be consonant with the nature and character of the individuals who must live in it. If those contriving social structures overlook who these individuals are, or sentimentalize their nature, or are incompetent social engineers, disaster can result.
18 The Archimedes of the Macaques
Page: 312 (73.58%) @ 28 Feb 2026 01:35:46 PM
Among the many new social forms invented by the primates are feuds and vendettas, sometimes extending over many generations—intimations of the beginnings of history.
Is it really, though? Can feuds be the primary reason for recording history?
19 What Is Human?
Page: 332 (78.30%) @ 01 Mar 2026 04:02:30 PM
It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer.
Page: 334 (78.77%) @ 01 Mar 2026 10:06:56 PM
“remembering the sabbath to keep it holy,” which is an institution unknown in many human cultures.
20 The Animal Within
Page: 358 (84.43%) @ 05 Mar 2026 04:52:47 AM
The common primate practice of pseudosexual mounting of males by males to express dominance is not widespread in humans, and some have taken comfort from this fact. But the most potent form of verbal abuse in English and many other languages is “Fuck you,” with the pronoun “I” implicit at the beginning. The speaker is vividly asserting his claim to higher status, and his contempt for those he considers subordinate. Characteristically, humans have converted a postural image into a linguistic one with barely a change in nuance. The phrase is uttered millions of times each day, all over the planet, with hardly anyone stopping to think what it means. Often, it escapes our lips unbidden. It is satisfying to say. It serves its purpose. It is a badge of the primate order, revealing something of our nature despite all our denials and pretensions.