Name: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
ISBN: 9780712698191

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a ROOTS for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits--self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics--are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals. Astonishing in its scope, brilliant in its insights, and an absolutely compelling read, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS is a triumph of popular science.

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asterix99Apr 2026

The book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan is a revelation in how close human behaviour is to those of chimps.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61662.Shadows_of_Forgott...

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chistevSep 2025

Carl Sagan just might be my favorite non-fiction author. As Richard Dawkins said, he was incapable of constructing a bad sentence.

One of my favorite parts of this book was the essay "The Dragon in my Garage". The essay argues that if you can't provide any testable or falsifiable evidence for a dragon's existence, then its existence is no different than the absence of a dragon.

Mentioned it in my blog -

"The promise of an afterlife is a cornerstone of many religions, offering comfort in the face of mortality. However, this promise often hinges on the existence of an all-powerful deity, whose nature and existence remain subjects of debate. Central to many afterlife beliefs is the notion of an invisible, immortal soul or spirit capable of experiencing emotions, enabling the concepts of reward or punishment. Yet, no empirical evidence has been found to confirm the existence of such a soul. Acclaimed science author Carl Sagan illustrated this challenge with his “dragon in the garage” analogy. If someone claims to have a dragon that is invisible, silent, intangible, and undetectable by any means, there is no practical difference between the dragon’s existence and non-existence. Similarly, without verifiable evidence, the existence of an immortal soul remains unproven."

My other favorite books from him are -

1. Pale Blue Dot - That "look again at that dot" might be the most poetic thing I've read.

For the unaware, or for those who want to read it again, here's the full quote -

"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."

2. Cosmos.

3. BILLIONS AND BILLIONS - the part he described coming to know that he had cancer was beautifully written.

4. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are with Ann Druyan.

I never read that fiction book he wrote - Contact.

But, man, I'm going to add one of his books to my To Be Read list again lol.

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karthickgururajMay 2020

I would suggest Shadows of forgotten Ancestors, by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.

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btillySep 2013

Comments like that are notably missing from this thread even though humans and orangutans are closely related and would share similar low-level social structures.

If this is true, then it involves truths that I am quite sure you would not want to hear about.

Our closest living relative is the chimpanzee. The average adult male chimp has sex an average of once per hour. The only difference between a mating display and a threat display is the erection. Females object an average of 1% of the time in which case it becomes clear that the similarity between mating displays and threat displays goes further than a superficial visual similarity. (Do keep in mind that any healthy adult chimp - of either gender - is stronger than any human weightlifter.) Rape in chimpanzees is neither uncommon nor frowned upon.

This behavior starts young. In fact while males are not grown enough to be unable to subdue adult females on their own, their mothers will assist them in subduing low ranking females of their choice. Yes, this is exactly what it sounds like.

There may indeed be low level social similarities between chimps and humans. But if so, they are not similarities that we would feel comfortable admitting to.

If the topic interests you, for further reading I would suggest Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and Anne Druyan. Among other things it is the source of the facts that I just quoted for you. And as a final thought, one of strongest cross-primate similarities is a connection between sex and dominance. The phrase, "Fuck you!" has echoes far and wide among our relatives.

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redwoodNov 2012

I strongly recommend reading the Carl Sagan book in a similar vein called "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" for folks interested in a pop-intro to genetics and the history of life.

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btillyMar 2010

I don't know what you mean by "related to software". I'm going to take a narrow definition that you mean related to the process of writing, designing, tracking, etc. So something like Information Rules on the economic theory of pricing software products is OK. Or a classic on managing software developers like Peopleware is OK.

Some other general business books I like include The Innovator's Dilemma, The Innovator's Solution and First, Break all the Rules. A non-software specific design book I highly recommend is The Design of Everyday Things. Even though it is geared towards manufacturing related industries, I'm also very fond of Winning at New Products.

If you haven't already you should learn more about negotiation. Even if your only negotiation is negotiating a new job every several years, reading a book on it is very worthwhile. If you can negotiate yourself an extra $1000 bonus, once, the book has paid for itself with interest. The two books I recommend there are Start with No and Bargaining for Advantage. I'd recommend the first if you need a general purpose bargaining strategy and aren't experienced. I'd recommend the second if you're an experienced bargainer who is looking to improve.

A few years back I read The Prince by Machiavelli. I liked it a lot more than I thought I would.

For general interest for anyone who likes math I strongly recommend The Mathematical Experience by Davis and Hersch. My summary of it is that Godel, Escher, Bach is the book that non-mathematicians have on their coffee table book, while The Mathematical Experience is the one that mathematicians have.

Lots of people gave sci-fi recommends for you. To those I'll add Peter Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction series and Bujold's Miles Vorkosigan series. Furthermore if you haven't seen it yet, go to an IMAX and see Hubble 3D. If you ever dreamed of space, you need to see it. Really.

For random science fact, I like Jared Diamond. I like virtually everything by Stephen J. Gould. I recently re-read Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and still love that.

I could list more, but that's enough for the moment.

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