The Unknown and Bewilderment

In Brian Greene's essay "Our Universe Might Be a Giant Hologram", he seems to focus on his belief in "Holographic Parallel Universes". He believes that there is "some distant surface that, much as a puppeteer pulls strings, are fully linked to the processes taking place in my fingers, arms, and brain" as he types his essay on the computer. I personally wouldn't put much thought into my perception of reality changing because even if there was some alternate universe, I would still be here in our universe. Sure its strange that some person (or thing) is doing something light years away, that is related to what I'm doing. I won't deny that, BUT the fact of the matter is I'm over here, and they're somewhere else. If there was a chance that we'd get to meet each other, I might care a little more and even feel some sort of weird connection to my "other self", but until then...

On the topic of connection, I do believe Edward Abbey, author of "Serpents of Paradise", has a connection to the animals living in the woods with him. He says "I'm a humanist. I'd rather kill a man than a snake." According to Dicionary.com, a humanist is a person having a strong interest in or concern for human welfare, values, and dignity, so his willingness to take a mans life over an animal shows that he has a higher regard for them. When I was a vegetarian, I too was more concerned with the feelings of animals sometimes more than other people. It's sad really, but I felt bad for them and I, like Abbey, believed (and still believe) it is possible that "many of the nonhuman undomesticated animals experience emotions unknown to us." I think because of his deep connection with nature and uncivilization, Abbey tries to familiarize himself with their unknown thoughts or emotions. As previously mentioned, he feels connected to the wild and its inhabitants so maybe he desires to learn as much as he can about them in order to deepen that connection.

The common ground in both of these stories seems to be the idea of the unknown, and that inability to uncover it leads the authors to a state of bewilderment. They allow themselves to become confused/bewildered by their interests, and they won't find clarity until the unknown is revealed.