[morganvachon]

That's my take on it as well. We've created fiction that explores the idea (The Matrix is the most obvious recent entry), we've created games which are simulations themselves, and pretty soon we'll be able to create complex, realistic simulations that in turn can create complex, realistic simulations. After all, we've managed to simulate an entire ALU in Minecraft, itself a simulation of life in a blocky world, and there are far more advanced game engines out there.