Why Philip Pullman Is Obsessed with Panpsychism - Facts So Romantic

Philip Pullman is once again having a moment, thanks to the new blockbuster adaptation of His Dark Materials by the BBC and HBO. His fantasy classic--filled with witches, talking bears and "daemons" (people's alter-egos that take animal form)--is rendered in glorious steampunk detail. Pullman has also returned to the fictional world of his heroine, Lyra Belacqua, with a new trilogy, The Book of Dust, which probes more deeply into the central question of his earlier books: What is the nature of consciousness? Pullman loves to write about big ideas, and recent scientific discoveries about dark matter and the Higgs boson have inspired certain plot elements in his novels. The biggest mystery in these books--an enigmatic substance called Dust--comes right out of current debates among scientists and philosophers about the origins of consciousness and the provocative theory of panpsychism.