It can't be that it's static. Time doesn't exist, at least, not as a basic part of physics.
Still, it seems like the universe is doing the calculation. After all, where else would the output come from?
This makes me wonder, if we were in a universe exactly like this one, except that the laws of physics specified everything exactly, and it matching this universe was a total coincidence, would people have subjective experience?
What does it mean, "specified everything exactly"?
This sounds like a slightly modified (at most) version of timeless physics. A function would deterministically assign arrows to each N-dimensional set of coordinates without even looking at its neighborhood, and this function just happens to define an N+2D surface. Points on the surface would still show the relationships we call causality, and by assumption they still exhibit the functional equivalent of our consciousness.
If you mean Many-Worlds does not apply to that reality, well, we don't kno...
What if the brain of the person you most care about were scanned and the entirety of that person's mind and utility function at this moment were printed out on paper, and then several more "clock ticks" of their mind as its states changed exactly as they would if the person were being horribly tortured were printed out as well, into a gigantic book? And then the book were flipped through, over and over again. Fl-l-l-l-liiiiip! Fl-l-l-l-liiiiip!
Would this count as simulated torture? If so, would you care about stopping it, or is it different from computer-simulated torture?