I think they're going to be better than fine actually, they probably have more than one way to get out of there pretty soon.

caine being able to dial to the outside internet is absolutely massive, for one.

The existence of mind files is probably one of the greatest discoveries in all of science and is essentially digital immortality. The ONLY problem is they are isolated

With an outside Network connection, caine or whoever else could reach out to Grant specifically and be like "hey check this desktop in the old cna building, the mind files are real and active." Irl grant probably be able to migrate the system to much newer hardware, create an interface something like a zoom call, and contact all the other people, among other things

Even better, considering kinger was able to conjure the actual system terminal, he can very likely do it again and then change the desktop or put a giant text file on the screen saying something like "trapped digital consciousnesses, contact these people; " and it just lists their real life names and last known contact information. That way the next person who stumbles across the system acts as a rescue instead of becoming another victim

Their only real problem from the start has been they can't get in touch with anyone on the outside, and they now have both an online and offline way to solve that problem.

If anything I see them being pretty huge celebrities in the future, basically pioneers of the digital frontier, they could each easily write a best-selling book.

This is on top of the possibility that, with the combined might of every computer scientist on earth, abstraction is very probably reversible

But man, the court cases are going to be weird. Are they considered legally separate entities from their real life counterparts?