Subjective experience is a labeling system shaped by natural selection, assigning valence labels (good/bad, approach/avoid) to survival-relevant stimuli. Neonates' innate reactions to sweetness (approach) and bitterness (avoidance) provide direct evidence for this innate valence labeling. At the neural level, subjective experience and coordinated firing of neuronal ensembles in specific pathways are the same process, differing only in perspective. The theory distinguishes psychological valence (phenomenological description) from its biological mechanistic explanation. Acquired supplementary labeling allows innate labels to be modulated through learning. Individual differences arise from interactions among genes, development, and experience. EVLT transforms the "hard problem" of consciousness into an empirically tractable functional problem.
Predictive Processing (PP) holds that the brain continuously predicts future sensory states to organize perception. This paper argues that premise is false due to logical and physical impossibilities: predicting a system that includes oneself creates a self-referential paradox, and both quantum uncertainty and classical chaos prevent accurate prediction at any timescale. The paper distinguishes prediction as a high-level cognitive function from its proposed role as a low-level operating mechanism, arguing PP mistakenly universalizes it. An alternative is proposed: a comparison mechanism that continuously compares current sensory input with the immediately prior state stored in short-term memory, generating a result that drives the stream of consciousness and triggers exogenous attention when change exceeds an adaptive threshold.