[andsoitis]

> the consciousness still feels alive to itself

Consciousness is the state of having experiences.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognize yourself as the subject of your experiences. In other words, consciousness is a dependency for self-awareness.

It is interesting to ponder what experiences a simulation could have and whether the simulator (human) needs to anticipate what kinds of experiences they want the simulation to be able to experience and build for that.

In organisms, we think that consciousness has arisen due to evolution by natural selection because it aids in the ability for the genetic code to reproduce (survive + multiply).

It isn't obvious why consciousness would spontaneously emerge in a simulation (what's the point?) as a simulation is digital and can spread without the need for consciousness.

[swid]

If you had infinite compute and time could you not just simulate all of “earth” itself? I think the compute needed for that would be absurd and unreasonable to build, but such a simulation would obviously have natural selection going on inside of it.

If that is possible; then perhaps there are many simplified simulations that can still be large and fast enough to support evolution. Or we can leverage actual reality as well, to give digital life embodied experiences in the real world.

Thinking the simulation needs to spread is the wrong way to think about it. The universe does not need to multiply into more universes. If I replace simulation with universe in your final paragraph, the argument makes little sense to me. There can be competition within a simulation, and consciousness seems useful where competition and survival are somehow part of that.