The same calendar makes recency a question to explain
Define an explicit quantitative mapping from an unfamiliar magnitude to a familiar scale, place several examples on it, and reuse the same mapping later so comparisons remain connected.
The Dragons of Eden
Carl Sagan · 33 weeksThe same calendar makes recency a question to explain
SHORT SOURCE EXCERPT“very late in December in the Cosmic Calendar”
The chapter locates the emergence of human intelligence late in the already established calendar, asks why it appeared so late, and offers four possible brain-related explanations. It states that a crisp choice among them is unavailable and that several may contribute.
Reusing the mapping lets a familiar position carry a new explanatory task. The image establishes the scale of the question without pretending to choose among its possible answers.
The source in context.
Fossils, brain volume and features of human evolution are considered alongside motifs from Genesis. The chapter revisits the Cosmic Calendar and ends by asking what separates human capacities from those of nearby species.
Open this chapterWhat this example supports
Reusing the mapping lets a familiar position carry a new explanatory task. The image establishes the scale of the question without pretending to choose among its possible answers.
Its limit
The dates and candidate explanations are Sagan’s historical account. The calendar gives a shared reference point; it neither validates the evolutionary claims nor resolves the alternatives.
Source & edition
Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden; supplied Ballantine/Random House ebook text, copyright 1977 by Carl Sagan, eISBN 978-0-307-80100-5, version v3.1_r2; the filename’s 2011 date is not confirmed by an internal publication-date statement.
Supplied text, lines 981–981. The short quotation is checked against the source.
The completed whole-source AI synthesis supplied candidate observations and the broad argument map. This Codex editorial pass checked original source headings, section boundaries, openings and selected argumentative contexts; inspected every retained example; checked the existing pattern dictionary and base examples; and rewrote or rejected nominations. It is a source-checked editorial pass, not a new independently adjudicated whole-book reading.
supplied Ballantine/Random House ebook text, copyright 1977 by Carl Sagan, eISBN 978-0-307-80100-5, version v3.1_r2; the filename’s 2011 date is not confirmed by an internal publication-date statement