Yes totally agreed. The gene has to "know" that we need some extra pinch of motivation to not end our lives - otherwise we would be massively doing it.
Interesting! My best friend is a biologist so I’m gonna ask him about octopuses, cuz I can’t really follow your though processes with my limited knowledge here:D.
Anyway you are right that if humans ever reach a state where they’ll be able to create a matrix like reality they will do it. And maybe it has already happened:P. It would be a strong argument against the "there are no ancient relics that would indicate that there has been a developed human society before ours". Why would they program ancient relics into the matrix if they just wanted to test us right:)? Thus said I would change the Elon’s statement to something like (if I wanted to fully agree with it.
"When humans reach a state where they can pull off the creation of matrix-like, they would do it and it has possibly already happened.”