What is the simplest possible universe?
One answer is that it is ours because ours is the only universe we know to exist and one is simpler than two.
Another answer is to start from scratch with a blank sheet of … well what? Vacuum foam? Dirac sea? Hilbert space?
So rather than building up perhaps we should start by simplifying, decluttering the universe we have. We could start by getting rid of some of those high end elements from the periodic table, the ones with half lives measured in fractions of a second…
But although they seem to have no relevance to our world they exist because of the laws of nature so we would gave to unpick the laws of nature and elements, are in any case, merely energy situationally described in information terms so which laws do we need to start unpicking?
So perhaps we need to go back to the start from scratch approach?
And so this cycle of random night thoughts continues until I fall asleep.
Night all.
Lost ConsCIOusness 
The more you simplify, the more complex everything gets. The more you create simple laws, the more complex everything gets. If understanding is fractal, then simplicity is nothing except where you’re positioned in all of this, relative to where you were before and where you will be next.
The only complexity is trying to be in too many places at once.