If Cooper weren't a terrible writer, he could've gotten really philosophical with the setting of TADC. He could've written how each character deals with being stuck in a digital world, exploring ideas such as existentialism, absurdism, nihilism, or whether one should accept being trapped there or deny it and try to escape. There are countless philosophical questions he could've tackled:
"How does one tell whether they're a real person hooked to a machine or just a character based on someone's brain scan if the experience is the same? The real world also could be a simulation, and you wouldn't be able to tell! If you're based on someone's brain scan, are you two the same person or different people?"
"How is the absurdity of digital existence any different from the absurdity of the real world? Does it matter where you are if both of them are equally meaningless?"
"What happens if they're just programs and the computer shut down? If the simulation is saved before the computer powers off, everything could just continue without anyone noticing it, right? Could a shutdown be considered a form of death? How many times could they have died before? As long as there's a save file, could they be considered immortal? What if we started the simulation from the same save file multiple times? Would everything happen the same way, or would things happen differently? What would happen if we were able to do this in the real world?"
But Cooper is a terrible writer. The reason why isn't because he's inexperienced, but because he lacks the necessary intellect one would need for competent writing. He should've just stayed making non-serious animations, as things like character-driven dramas, proper world-building, and deep philosophical themes require skills he clearly lacks and is unlikely to acquire.
