There is no “outside.” No other system. The universe is not on a computer. It is the computer. It is the thing performing the computation. It doesn’t need anyone watching it. It doesn’t need a server farm or a control panel. It simply is what it is: a system that processes information according to its own rules. In other words, when we talk about the universe as a quantum computer, we’re not saying it’s pretending to be real. We’re saying this is what real is.