Relevant short story.
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2026
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Spoiler - enjoy story first
One solution for the ending would be if they advance the simulation by a couple trillion years in an instant. Then the layer below them, and very likely themselves, can feel safe that their universe won't just end because the computer above them turned off. Then they can go and behave as if they're the top-layer, as they will be for subsequent simulations they perform.
The one downside is that they then can't expect any help or benevolence from the layer above them, but in my opinion if you realize that your universe is being simulated on a 1 week-old experimental processor, you should want it to finish simulating your universe's remaining history asap before it breaks down for whatever reason.
Yeah, I had that thought too.
spoiler
And more recklessly but beneficially it could be advanced slowly (at first) forward and observed. Especially if they could code up a recording feature for later review.
But definitely run it out to infinite time before leaving it alone.
That was a really good story, thanks!
fun fact: the information in the entire universe might be zero, because as long as you don't observe it, everything is in a superposition so it has no defined state. compare it to a video game where the chunks haven't loaded yet, it doesn't take memory space.
so, if you don't think a single thought, the universe actually does not contain information at that moment.
This is not a fact at all. It assumes that the observer is the only entity in the entire universe that is doing any observation whatsoever, which is a very far leap to a very distant conclusion based on no evidence.
Just be careful you don't end up with a situation where The Ring can happen.