Bruno, Joel, et. al., I appreciate how something like the Universal Dovetailer or equivalent programs can generate an infinite set of programs that could include the one that describes our universe (including our consciousness). However, Godel's theorem applied to this top-down approach would prevent us from being able to recognize that program, or even knowing how to recognize that program. The best we can do is continually narrow down the options, from an infinite subset to a "smaller" infinite subset, as we add more parameters for description.
To reconcile with anthropic fine-tuning without white rabbits, I had bought into the postulate that we were in the simplest possible universe, in the absence of knowing the exact criteria for developing self-aware consciousness, but just assuming that some absolute criteria exist. But this begs the questions, what are those criteria and why those criteria? Without knowing these criteria, we cannot tell what is the simplest possible universe containing consciousness. Fred