Cellular Automata Disprove ID?

I was reading about cellular automata recently, and came across a
concept by Langton that I feel ties in exactly with the little of ID
theory that has been revealed, specifically the egg diagram at the top
of this page:

http://www.theory.org/complexity/cdpt/html/node5.html

It describes cellular automata as belonging to four classes:

fixed - the trivial state where the automaton doesn't change or
progress

periodic - the automaton has some kind of simple, cyclic behaviour.
This, I feel, is analogous to Dembski's 'natural law' class, the one
where things are specified, but not complex.

chaotic - the automaton produces lots of meaningless random output.
This, I feel, is analogous to Dembski's characterising of stuff as
complex, but not specified.

complex - try not to confuse this with the word complex I used above:
that was Dembski's, this is Langtons. This class contains automata
which are on the border between periodic and chaotic - automata like
Conway's Life, for example, which have all those interesting
behaviours, or the Rule 110 1D automaton. This class, I feel, is
analogous to Dembski's complex specified information, or CSI.

If Langton is correct, and my reading of him is also, this seems to me
to challenge Dembski's claim that CSI is only caused by intelligence.
CA rules are amazingly simple and yet this 'complex' behaviour (also
called Class-IV behaviour by Wolfram) emerges from them with ease.

As an aside, I'm also amazed that if IDers want to keep up the
impression that they are doing science, they have not turned to the
field of artificial life. Cellular automata are the perfect ground for
their studies; not only are they fascinating to study, they are fun,
and produce pretty pictures.

PS. I did a search just to be sure that this hasn't already been
addressed by ID, and didn't find any references to it, but I did find
a page making this same argument here: http://www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~schectex/courses/wolfram.html

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Proving of classical syllogisms
    ... I've just been reading New Scientist; ... its about'cellular automata'. ... of fractals are possible depending upon the repeat. ... (if a syllologism is 'a logical arguement in ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Proving of classical syllogisms
    ... I've just been reading New Scientist; ... its about'cellular automata'. ... of fractals are possible depending upon the repeat. ... (if a syllologism is 'a logical arguement in ...
    (sci.logic)
  • Re: Mycroft Holmes
    ... CONSPIRACY 2 and is the free sample currently at Book View Cafe: ... Reading it now, and I've just run across the phrase "an automata". ...
    (rec.arts.sf.written)