As you do this, you get a sequence of CA's with lambda values increasing from zero to one. Somewhere in between, at some critical value of lambda, there will be a transition from order to chaos. It is near this transition that the most interesting CA's tend to be found, the ones that have the most complex behavior. To apply Langton's ideas in the search for interesting CA's, you have to construct such a path and wander along it, looking for the transition between order and chaos. The EdgeOfChaosCA, which is described on the next page let's you do just that.
Some people think so.
They claim that evolution tends to push systems towards the edge of chaos, where complex, interesting behaviors such as life can occur. If you are intrigued by this idea, see the bibliography page . You'll find some suggested readings on cellular automata, complexity, evolution, and the edge of chaos. The next page describes an applet that you can use to explore cellular automata, Langton's lambda parameter, and the edge of chaos.