[chronofar]

Completely sidesteps which question?

It answers very clearly these questions posed by the person I was responding to:

> why I am currently occupying the body that I am as an observer, and not another one, or perhaps even none.

It definitely does not answer the "hard" problem of consciousness, which is what you're alluding to and which I specifically and explicitly said it didn't answer.

[evrimoztamur]

I referred to the hard question in my OP, and I don’t think that materialism answers either of the question’s formulation. Materialism may answer it at one point, and I would be very impressed if it does, because it is going to require perhaps new mathematics, geometry, and physics for us to get there. So far, none of our tools for measurement of any form of field has led us any closer to answering the hard question.

[chronofar]

Yes I noted it doesn't answer the "hard" problem explicitly in both of my replies here on this thread. Indeed, the very reason it is called the "hard" problem is b/c it very well seems perhaps unsolvable (though this is certainly debatable, but this is the very etymology of the term).

Your actual stated questions (why am I me and not someone else, etc) are in no way part of the "hard" problem's formulation, and are indeed easily answered by materialism as I noted.

Perhaps take a look at the wiki article on the hard problem: https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Hard_problem_of_consciousness