J.H. Conway takes von Neumann s death wish and creates the game of life. Amateurs at mainframes everywhere begin to play and discover a chaotic self-organizing universe.
Evolution can create useful algorithms via bottom-up emergence.
Belgian physicist I. Prigogene writes book on B-Z reactions, termite mounds, etc. Random Boolian networks show a digital version of neural nets in which self-organization creates pools of stability, similar to models for the origin of life and ecosystems. Hopfield and others re-animate analog neural networks. Dawkins and Sims biomorphs and other evolving forms. SimLife, SimEarth, SimCity.