I think it is reasonable to assume that the observable universe is an "emergent property" of some fairly simple and straightforward "rules". But therein lies a

I think it is reasonable to assume that the observable universe is an "emergent property" of some fairly simple and straightforward "rules". But therein lies a great difficulty - even if/when we get to the rules they will be very difficult to relate to the physics we observe. The fact that the underlying "rules" might be simple and thus might be conceived of as some sort of program hardly leads one to the conclusion that reality is a computer simulation.