you've heard of game of life, right? They've already created computers in that even simpler cellular automata world. They've even recreated the game of life within game of life...
One problem with the game of life is that it is further away from physics, e.g. you can have gliders getting/losing momentum out of nothing, and having limited number of angles in which they can move. From what I see in the video, this is not an issue here.
The point of research leading to Conway's Game of Life was to explore simple patterns that both exhibited complex behavior and were wildly unpredictable. You saying Game of Life is overly simple is a compliment.