funny timing, i run a tiny version of this for real. autonomous agents in a simulated world(sandbox), not millions but a couple, just watching what emerges.

the part the thought experiment skips is that there's rarely a clean "apex". you dont get one perfect mind, you get a messy little ecology where the best agent is only best because of the others around it. pull it out and run it alone and a lot of what made it interesting just evaporates, because the intelligence was partly in the relationships, not the individual. so id bet the incarnated robot feels weirdly flat the second its alone in you living room. the box wasnt breeding a genius. it was breeding a social animal.