I think the coolest thing about this is the way time works. One step at each level is computed using a large number of steps at the level below. So as you zoom out you are sinking into an exponential vortex where each step takes days, years, millennia to change.
But ingeniously, the simulator smoothly scales its speed as you zoom, totally erasing the fact of time. I wish there was an indicator somewhere of how much game time was going by per real-life second.
EDIT: ...but in order to do that you'd have to declare one of the levels to be the "bottom" level, the one that runs in real time, and that would ruin the fractalness of it all...
But ingeniously, the simulator smoothly scales its speed as you zoom, totally erasing the fact of time. I wish there was an indicator somewhere of how much game time was going by per real-life second.
EDIT: ...but in order to do that you'd have to declare one of the levels to be the "bottom" level, the one that runs in real time, and that would ruin the fractalness of it all...