: The Mantle may just be the responsibility for capturing the data of each
: instance (universe) before the Unload method is executed (end of
: universe).

: What if each universe is just a bit in a quantum computer, and the sum total
: of life simply solves some minor equation?

: Or simply, as the universe crunches (or boils away to a cold nothing), life
: needs an exit strategy.

...what if there's a supreme form of life (beyond precursors) for whom time travels at a higher rate? We'd be like scurrying ants, essentially irrelevant to the greater power. One day for the higher order could be like one second for the lesser. At that scale, yeah, billions of galaxies reduced to bits in some macro-quantum machine, requiring a form of governance for data reliability. hmm...

*peers more deeply into the atom*

....