“ Wolpert shows that this isn’t required by the mathematics: simulations do not have to degrade, and infinite chains of simulated universes remain fully consistent within the theory.”

How is this consistent with the second law of thermodynamics? If there is one universe containing an infinite number of simulations (some of which simulate the base universe) wouldn’t there be a limit to how much computation could be contained? By its very nature a chain of simulations would grow exponentially with time, rapidly accelerating heat death. That may not require the simulations to degrade but it puts a hard limit on how many could be created.