This discussion from TED is a good one, pay attention, class. In this video, Christoph Adami talks about how he uses virtual life on his computer to suss out factors which can help NASA detect real life out in space — no matter how strange that life might be.
What bothers me most is how easy it is to create complex virtual life as opposed to how tough it is to whip up some simple for-real life on this side of the screen. It shifts the odds on our own universe being a virtual construct, you know?