This is the scientific pattern finder. He represents the side of humanity that purports to use reason ( as opposed to other kinds of faith) in the search for order.

He looks weird because he has seen so much.

Every scientific revolution has been an assault on the common sense of the time. Each new theory is stranger than the one before.

Copernicus said that contrary to the evidence of our eyes, the earth revolves around the sun. Newton said an invisible force called gravity caused apples to fall and planets to orbit the sun. Later, Einstein said, no, it was because space-time gets warped in the vicinity of big, heavy objects. Darwin said that we are descended from monkeys. Freud said we've got an unconscious. Schrodinger said that a cat in a box could be both alive and dead - until you look at it.  

Each new discovery has added a new level of abstraction to the scientific edifice.  

Some of these abstractions have become so commonplace that they have acquired the weight of reality.  For example, most people are comfortable imagining the atom as a miniature solar system.

However many recent theories cannot be pictured.  No one can really visualize quantum uncertainty. We can't visualize the extra dimensions in which cosmic "strings" vibrate; we can't really understand what it means to say that sub-atomic  particles, such as  electrons, are pure information.

Because the pattern finder's approach is based on the scientific method, it is regarded (at least by "rational" people) as being more accurate than the faith-based approach.

However, Johnson wonders if our observations are tainted by our human viewpoint and by nervous systems evolved for hunting and gathering. He wonders how similar the theories of science are to the origin myths of more "primitive" people.  

Perhaps, if viewed by a higher intelligence, we all would appear as primitive.