While eyes distinguish differences between objects, our ears can hear the interactions between them. Our ears can discriminate more sounds than our eyes can objects, and hearing music can help us make sense of connections to nonhuman life. Music has existed in every human culture in existence but has been a source of entertainment. In the 20th century, some musicians aimed to change the definition of music, going beyond regular pitch and melody, calling to attention the sounds of everyday life. Music can help us reconnect to our environment that we have irreversibly altered, and that we must change in order to maintain a livable world. The author of this performed experiments in which he studied the interactions of nature and animals in creativity. In one, he found that Mockingbirds mimic the sounds of the zoo, Volkswagons, and washing machines, and is just as interested in them as he is sound from another bird. He critiques the marketing of soundscapes to the public as a facade of environmental protection efforts. These sounds are manufactured to make the public believe that they are still romantic and wild, when that is not really the case. He spent time in Africa where the calming wilderness sounds meshed with cars passing and water pumps pumping water into the savanna. He cites sounds at a pond, as he finds a pattern in them, yet they also sound alien. His conclusion is that humans have thought of themselves as above other living things because of their language abilities, yet language does not define capabilities for thought.
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