Carl Sagan Broca’s Brain (1979)

     Carl Sagan Broca’s Brain (1979) Collection of essays. Sagan was in his time one of the great popularisers of science, especially of cosmology. His TV series Cosmos is still worth watching, even though, like this book, some of its data and speculations are outdated. Sagan treats this in one the essays, in which he muses about how much earth-bound observation was able to discover or how well  hypotheses were grounded. Subsequent space-based (almost entirely robotic) data decided between the hypotheses, or confirmed the observations, for example the surface temperature of Venus. A salutary reminder that our understanding of the universe is always limited by our factual knowledge and shaped by our prejudices, desires, and passions, and whatever worldview we have formed from necessarily limited data. Thus, educated people for a long time refused to believe that rocks could fall from the sky. But science as a method in the long run corrects errors and adds to our knowledge. In this, it differs from pseudoscience, which changes only as new science offers new opportunities for waffle and bafflegab: see the recent co-option of the jargon of quantum theory to justify claims of planes of existence, astral projection, and similar nonsense.
     Science also, and I think more importantly, helps us understand our place in the cosmos. There’s a paradox here: we are insignificant creatures confined to an insignificant planet in an insignificant patch of our galaxy, one among billions. But we are able nevertheless to grasp that insignificance, and that in itself is significant.
     Sagan also takes on a a couple of cranks, especially Velikovsky. He shows that Velikovsky’s speculations are physically impossible. That Velikovsky (and von Däniken, etc) enjoyed such a vogue in their time demonstrates how badly and incompletely science is taught. High school science is enough to refute their claims. It also shows that we underestimate the intelligence, skills, and technology of our ancestors. This is probably an effect of the caveman stereotype which is still disseminated in poorly understood versions of evolutionary theories. Our ancestors were very clever people: that so many modern humans cannot imagine how they did what they did suggests if anything that intelligence and creativity have declined in the last few millennia.
     Sagan writes in a clear style, rarely assuming his readers have more than a high school grasp of science and mathematics. Good book. ** to ***