  Why did the big bang occur, why do the laws and constants of nature as well
as the boundary conditions seem so fine-tuned for life, what is the role of
intelligence and self-consciousness in the universe, and how can it escape
cosmic doomsday? The hypothesis of Cosmological Artificial Selection (CAS)
connects those questions and suggests a far-reaching answer: Our universe might
be understood in terms of vast computer simulations and could even have been
created and transcended by one. - This essay critically discusses some of the
premises and implications of CAS and related problems both with the proposal
itself and its possible physical realization: Is our universe really
fine-tuned, does CAS deserve to be considered as a convincing explanation, and
which other options are available to understand the physical laws, constants
and boundary conditions? Is life incidental, and does CAS revalue it? And is
intelligence and self-consciousness ultimately doomed, or might CAS rescue it?
  Keywords: origin of the universe, big bang, fine-tuning, laws of nature,
physical constants, initial conditions, intelligent life, cosmological natural
selection, cosmological artificial selection, artificial cosmogenesis, deism,
natural theology, far future of the universe, physical eschatology
