This project itself is an indication of the shared desire for things to be restored to their previous state, as they once were, despite the work required to accomplish that and an awareness of how impractical that is in real terms, using "real" loosely something since it is virtual, not physical.

And yet, even when faced with the impossibility of recreating a 1:1 copy of that old world, so many endeavor to do just that, contributing in one way or another towards a monumental task that will never be completed. And so the game, everquest, lives up to its name. All the while so we accept numerous imperfection and knowingly deviate from nostalgia because it is our nature to advance and push the boundaries, even while clinging to the past with all of its familiar comforts.

If there is more beyond this, and art imitates life/vice versa, than why would it be anything more than an effort to get back to what we knew, with greater knowledge of it after the fact?

So one could argue that the answer has been right in front of us all along. Life is a game with expansions, a copy without an original (anymore). And eventually there will be an attempt to recreate what we did for recreation, thinking of it as serious work rather than play.

Asimov wrote about this possibility decades ago in The Last Question.

If space is too dangerous maybe we should just explore Earth.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/...1000_QL80_.jpg

Boats against the current and all that.