> But be it a god or a computer simulation, it needs to make testable, falsifiable predictions to better or understanding of the natural world. Otherwise, true or false, it's useless to us.

true

> Not necessarily. It could totally explain or universe but leave us clueless as to what lies beyond. To be fair, I expect we'll never be able to answer what lies beyond - so that's fine.

You're right. It could totally explain or universe but leave us clueless as to what lies beyond. As does science.

An oracle might solve the halting problem, but it has nothing to say about itself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_machine#Oracles_and_hal....

It's turtles all the way down ;)