Consciousness

You are conflating explanation with assertion.

Anyone can posit baseless assertions that hypothetically account for things, but that doesn't mean they have explained those things. Explanations are not baseless. Explanations incorporate data. They provide a mechanistic understanding for predicting the outputs of a system.

Physicalism is not baseless. Physicalism incorporates data. Physicalism provides a mechanistic understanding for predicting outputs of systems. Physicalism explains 99.99% of our reality.

Idealism is baseless. Idealism does not incorporate data, it just asserts things arbitrarily. Idealism does not provide any mechanistic understanding of why things are the way they are for predictive purposes. Idealism explains 0% of our reality.

When choosing between metaphysical theories, explanatory power is the primary epistemic virtue. Simplicity only becomes relevant after explanatory power has been maximized.

Physicalism outperforms idealism in explanatory power. It underpins our most successful predictive and practical frameworks—from physics and biology to engineering and medicine. Until idealism…

If we’re conflating explanations with mere assertions, then I can explain reality even better than idealism—with Pastafarianism.

Don’t scoff. The Flying Spaghetti Monster isn’t just a myth. Haven’t you studied quantum physics? Every quantum wave function is a manifestation of the Spaghetti Monster’s noodly appendages—microscopic units of spaghetti scattered across the universe.

He is in all things and through all things. His fields penetrate all. All things are pasta.

Just as quantum fields are indeterminate within and determinate without, the Spaghetti Monster is mental within and material without.

This is the Dual Aspect Theory of Pasta.

With Pastafarian Dual Aspect Theory, we can "predict" that: