  This paper sets out a theory of how feedback cooling in the brain switches on
consciousness. It explains how cooling reduces thermal noise to the point where
macroscale quantum phenomena - crucially Bose-Einstein condensation and
long-range coherence - can operate at body temperature. It takes the core idea
from Stapp that mind and brain interact via some sort of oscillator and then
focuses on a likely candidate: neuronal arrays identified by Stapp as cortical
minicolumns. Feedback cooling allows amplifiers to act as refrigerators, and
when applied to minicolumns it is suggested that the units perform like quantum
accelerators, solid-state devices devised to supercharge standard computers.
When the accelerator is idle, as in sleep, we have a neural computer operating
unconsciously, but when feedback cooling is activated by thalamocortical loops,
it produces a Bose-Einstein condensate, quantum computation, and consciousness.
The model explains how macroscale quantum phenomena can operate in a warm and
noisy brain, how and why consciousness evolved, and gives insight into puzzling
unconscious states like sleepwalking. The model is testable, predicting that
cold states in the brain are detectable by magnetic resonance thermometry.
