The idea of a virtual universe goes way back...
According to Hinduism, we are the dream of the god Vishnu.
When he wakes up, the dream/universe ends, until he falls back to sleep
again and a new dream/universe appears.
The idea was a big hit in the 1970s with Westerners who though the
Universe would eventually fall back upon itself into a Big Crunch, then
somehow kick-start and form a new universe from a new Big Bang.
But now it seems our Universe is expanding at an accelerating pace
and things will either fade into oblivion without ever meeting again,
or we'll have a Big Rip. Or our Universe is part of a much vaster Cosmos
(or Metaverse) where many other universes exist and our smacking into
another universe may cause a new Big Bang/Universe. This last idea is
called Brane or M Theory.