His Dark Materials: Dust, Sentience and Sapience

 Dust: Sentience and Sapience

Dust is central to the His Dark Materials story as it is ultimately what the protagonists have to protect and save. To fully understand it, we need to discuss two concepts that set people apart from other animals. I meant to say people, because in the context of the books, it's not just humans. 

Sentience

Sentience is defined as the ability to experience feelings and sensations, i.e. possessing a nervous system. This does not always imply higher cognitive functions like awareness, reason or complex thoughts. It is sometimes used interchangeably with 'sapience' but there is a difference in definition. 

There is ongoing  debate about animal sentience but we know they can suffer pain and distress, they can learn and solve problems and even pass on their knowledge to offspring and peers. It is generally accepted that all vertebrates are recognised as sentient beings, as well as fish, lobsters and octopus. The sentience of AI is beyond the scope of this analysis. 

Sapience

Also defined as wisdom, this means the ability to apply one's knowledge, experiences and judgement to decision making and encounters in our life. It means we use insight, ethics and discernment when we make decisions and take actions. 

Wisdom requires more than just intelligence, we need to have an understanding of human nature, morality and the long term impact of words and actions in order to apply wisdom to a situation. Wisdom is also connected to traits like humility, patience, compassion, empathy and morality. 

Being wise, or sapient, means reflecting, thinking and being willing to learn and continue to develop yourself. It also means recognising the limitations of your own knowledge and perspective. 

Both of these concepts are as much about philosophy as science, but the bottom line is that we base our actions and decisions on our experiences and knowledge. This understanding of nature and the world around us is what allows us to be creative, innovate and invent and to share our insights and skills with other people. 

Dust

Dust goes by many names: Rusakov particles in Lyra's world. Shadows, shadow-particles or dark matter in Will's world and sraf in the world of the mulefa. It is an elementary particle that is responsible for consciousness.

Dust is attracted to sentient species, especially adults, as well as things made by sentient people. It is produced by engaging in creative or introspective activities, created when matter begins to understand itself. Dust was lost through the wounds in the world created by the Subtle Knife, which is why the windows had to be closed. 

Dust got its name from the Bible, when God was cursing Adam and Eve for eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Magisterium took Dust to be evidence of this original sin, as we discussed before. 

"For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Dust is more attracted to adults than children and this is because it is a metaphor for the shift from childhood innocence to adult wisdom. The process of growing up and gaining experience in the world, learning and establishing who we are. 

Dust has an influence on us whether we are aware of its existence or not. It is clearly important for us to function, and this is shown through the Spectres of Cittàgazze. The Spectres were created by the knife every time a window was opened and they fed on dust, the ability to create dust and the soul, or daemon. Children were immune until they reached puberty. Victims of the Spectres did not die, but were apathetic and unresponsive to their surroundings. 

The mulefa could see dust because of the oil from the wheel tree seeds. Mary used this and a lacquer to create the Amber Spyglass to see it. She also used the Cave computer and the I-Ching to communicate with Dust, suggesting other divination methods could also communicate with Dust. 

In Lyra's world, someone used a special emulsion to develop photographs that showed Dust and how it was attracted to adults more than children. The Alethiometer too was a method of communicating with Dust. Angels are beings that are consolidations of dust, made of it. 

This implies that our consciousness is what created angels, including the Authority and Metatron, who was once a man. So we created God, because we needed something to believe in to explain our world. Interesting thought. 

The Final Battle

The ending of the story culminates in a battle which is ultimately about protecting dust and retaining it in all the worlds. Lyra and Will promise to produce enough Dust to keep the window from the world of the dead open. This is why they separate despite it breaking both of their hearts to live apart. 

So this battle is therefore fighting for the right to keep our knowledge, curiosity, creativity, free will and freedom of thought. Everything that makes us people, makes us sentient and conscious, that makes us sapient. An important thing to preserve, in my opinion and a major theme of the books. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. 

Emi the Cat Lady 💜