Simulating reality puts together Evolutionary Robotics and Virtual Worlds: at the same time one is dealing with the full complexity of physical reality, while not bounded by the laws of conservation of matter or the fixed pace of time. However, writing a full-fledged simulator is an impossibility, for reality has endless detail.
A heated discussion separates pro- and anti- simulation ALife research; the detractors of simulations [98,133] argue that reality simply cannot be imitated, and that virtual agents adapted to simulated reality will evolve slower than real-time, fail to be transferable, or both. Advocates of simulation claim that by simulating only some aspects of reality one can evolve and transfer [72,71].