isn't it a bit weird to hypothesize that the virtuality would run on something as Reality 1.0/Earth-Normal as a computer?<p>are we assuming there are smarter cooler humans running around on their own planet with 7 continents, 5 oceans, in a 8 planet solar system (sorry pluto), orbiting a G2V class star? that are running big data-centers where they faithfully simulate physics, the planet, the heavens for us in essentially-exact detail?<p>that'd take a lot of computation. maybe our simulated reality only moves 10^-6 as fast, so they have time to do all the computation, and they're just really really old over there. in sci fi typically the uploaded people speed around at a much much faster time factor, but if we're trying to make sure that every physics experiment reproduces, biology & virology &c experiment & observations reproduce, that's a lot more complexity than what i imagine for your run-of-the-mill hyper-advanced society that has uploaded into the cloud: i imagine the uploaded society running a much more synthetic, simpler reality, selectively interesting.<p>to me, it's much easier to imagine a Great Fake situation, that humanity has been actively steered by unknown higher technology forces sometimes in the past couple thousands of years (and perhaps longer). i still tend to think we are a not entirely-uncommon random chance amid the congealed energy that exploded & hopefully pretty please contracts to explode again. i tend to think our past is our own. and so too our future.