What if the simulation is self-transforming, or it's a computer program that can learn and change? What if personal autonomy is a mechanism by which nature develops an emergent, artificial order? What if humanistic progress, then, is heroic rather than foolish and futile?

The same questions apply to theism. The conservative says we'd better not disobey God, or sin by rejecting his plan. But who's to say what that plan is? Maybe God would have created us as free, rational creatures because he wanted to see the end result of those properties. So the exercise of freedom and rationality against natural coercions and amorality might be part of the divine plan.