This introduction to the dissipative quantum model of brain and to its possible implications for consciousness studies is addressed to a broad interdisciplinary audience. Memory and consciousness are approached from the physicist point of view focusing on the basic observation that the brain is an open system continuously interacting with its environment. The unavoidable dissipative character of the brain functioning turns out to be the root of the brains large memory capacity and of other memory features such as memory association, memory confusion, duration of memory. The openness of the brain implies a formal picture of the world which is modeled on the same brain image: a sort of brain copy or Double, where world objectiveness and the brain implicit subjectivity are conjugated. Consciousness is seen to arise from the permanent dialogue of the brain with its Double.
The authors narration of his (re-)search gives a cross-over of the physics of elementary particles and condensed matter, and the brains basic dynamics. This dynamic interplay makes for a satisfying feeling of the unity of knowledge. (Series A)