One of the most important challenges in constructing a quantum simulator as "an array of simple quantum objects arranged to tuned to mimic the Hamiltonian of an exotic many-body system" is often ensuring that the system reaches its many-body ground state. This problem is particularly difficult in continuously driven quantum systems, where photon losses into the environment can completely empty the system or act as an infinite temperature bath. In this talk, I review a simple mechanism which can passively generate and protect the ground states of a wide range of interesting many-body Hamiltonians, without any intervention from an external observer. I will discuss a passive implementation of Shor's 3-qubit bit flip code, autonomously generated fractional quantum Hall states of light, and a proposal for passively engineering the surface code in finite-size superconducting qubit arrays.