This gave me an idea to make things even more complicated: Let's assume a scientist manages to create a simulated civilization of the same size as his own. It turns out, that to keep the civilization running he will have to sacrifice a lot. All members of the simulated civilization prefer to continue existing while the "mother civilization" prefers to sacrifice as little as possible.

How much should be sacrificed to keep the simulation running as long as possible? Should the simulated civilization create simulations itself to increase the preference of continued existence?

Bonus questions: Does a simulated Civilization get to prefer anything? What are the moral implications of creating new beings that may hold preference (including having children in real life)? What if the scientist can manipulate the preferences of the simulated civilization, should he? And to what end? What about education and other preference changing techniques in real life?

I have to say it's fun to find the most extreme scenario to doom our civilization by critical mass of preference. Can you find a more extreme or more realistic one than my civilization simulating supercomputer or the aliens mentioned in the original post?