The World Opacity and Knowledge

Abstract

In a typical scattering process among elementary particles, observation is limited to the asymptotic regions, where ingoing particles and outgoing particles behave like free, non-interacting particles. The regions of interaction is not accessible to our observations. They would be interfering with the phenomenon under study. The interaction region is thus an "opacity" region for us. Starting from such a remark, I then discuss the behavior of open systems and their interaction with the environment. The discussion is further extended to the brain functional activity and to the possibility to describe consciousness and mental activity as inseparably linked to neuronal activity.