"Oh, don't start that," she answers in a long-suffering tone. "Nihilism isn't going to get us anywhere. It's extremely unlikely the WAU would have the processing power left to be capable of making a full environment like this. Modeling consciousness is one thing, but making environments is totally different."

And she would know, of course. Taking it as given that this is a created, digital environment seems wholly reasonable to her, although explanations behind that seem a long time coming.

Catherine lets that stand for a long moment and then finally turns to face him, sober and even a little uncertain in the flickering lights of the movie playing on the screen. "Simon... There's not a lot we can do right now. We just have to wait."