But things are possibly even more elegant at the quantum level... Depending on which explanation of the measurement problem is right, most of physics might be expressed by the schroedinger equation alone. All the high-level classical rules are just emergent properties of very small-scale physics, which could be very elegant. Notice that I say "could"; independently, relativity and QM (under unitary theories like multiverse, einselection, etc.) are very elegant, but it's not clear how complete they are or how they fit together.

Now, for the long-term survival of intelligent life, I hope you're right and we figure out how to hack the VM :)