Obviously, I cannot answer many of the questions you ask, but that doesn't mean I have to resort to [deluding myself by] inventing irrational answers. I can wait and am perfectly happy in the expectation that the scientific method used so far to elucidate reality is quite capable of continuing to do so, whether this happens in my lifetime or not. But it's equally clear that 'virtual' realities as experienced in dreams don't need to meet the strictures of reality as perceived by (y)our waking senses.
You can easily imagine assembling both real and unreal items into immaterial model constructs, and it is a small step to do so whether one is aware of the imaginary or unreal aspects of certain components or not. And while that hard to pinpoint awareness might be qualified as illusory (not that this train of thought requires such a thing), the more readily described matter is arguably a different case*. What is illusory there is the notion that one should be able to perceive all dimensions of matter within the limits of one's unaided senses. If you have no problem transporting yourself beyond your own limitations with the aid of machines, why wouldn't that apply to your perceptions as well?
I must also disagree with your notion that "a brain lacking in understanding or means to deal with issues is a trait all humans share, so that [it] cancels out". I'm sure you can see more than one flaw in that interpretation, and this even applies to (and despite) those missing answers or questions you're referring to, just as I'm sure Dr. Venter is already sufficiently aware of this not to require my help. This is no zero sum game, to the contrary.
Likewise, I don't need to believe anything beyond what I can already encompass about my life: my 'self' reached critical mass and emerged during my physical development, just as it will cease to exist upon my death or perhaps even before that. It doesn't bother me one bit if you'd call that 'coming from nowhere and returning to nowhere', because that's how it appears to me; I have no problem whatsoever with that view and don't require a comforting illusion purporting something else. Besides, my personal fate is separate from that of humanity as a whole, and speculation about the details is as 'real' to all of us as it is immaterial to the actual course of events of such things.
*) We both can easily observe the differences between the effect of such mental exercises on reality, as opposed to that of direct interventions based on previous experimentation and associated expectation. But once again, these are only a few more coins from my opinion purse. Meanwhile, I'll let your final questions stew for a bit longer...
This is no zero sum game, to the contrary.
