> if the universe is that simple does that imply a complex runtime?
There is a tradeoff to be made between (algorithmic) information specified as a program/software versus an interpreter/hardware http://www.hutter1.net/publ/ctoex.pdf
One easy way to make our universe is to run all possible programs (even if you don't think our universe is computable, we would still end up running simulations which are indistinguishable to arbitrary precision). We can even apply an anthropic argument to this: that the vast majority of programs are not universes conducive to containing life, but we must necessarily find ourselves in one which is.