The first is popular culture and, in particular computer games. The second is field of artificial life or emergent behaviours. Both have their origins in the work of John von Neumann who, along with Alan Turing, is credited with the invention of the modern digital computer. Cinema succeeded early despite its emergent nature and its critics. Some 20 years before the medium matured commercial movie production succeeded and was capturing the publics attention in even remote parts of the world.
Film is a popular medium that circumvents the censorship of the cultural arbiters of fashion.
Ordinary people go to the movies. Just as today ordinary people play computer games. It matters little to them that they may be playing an even greater role in the emergence of a new metamedium and culture - it's good fun, good value for money. Von Neumann perceived that games were powerful models of the behaviour of time-based structures and of life itself. In order to comprehend and demonstrate his theory Neumann developed the field of cellular automata that had been devised by Stanislaw Ulam.