There's an old book, maybe called something like "The Incursive Universe" which deals with that idea. The computer game of "Life" was designed to model evolution with three simple rules for turning pixels off and on. Seems to me IBM or wherever it was invented finally had to tell their people they couldn't "play" it at work because it was slowing down the system. When I get home I'll check my notes and see if any of the foregoing is true, but something like it.

CC