This was the thesis of Thales of Miletus approximately 2600 years ago, but for the sake of this discussion let's credit Wolfram with the idea since he seems to love credit. ;-)
The human experience of computer programming shows a problem with Wolfram's thought. Wolframism in a nutshell says,
1. The complicated processes of the universe reduce
to simple rules (a la Conway's Life).
2. Therefore, simple rules *produce* the more complicated processes.
(Or the complicated *emerges* from the simple.)
Consider now that the complexity of computer software "reduces" to simple rules for manipulating 0's and 1's executed on processors, rules like
- MOVE the sequence of 32 bits from memory address A1 to register R1
- ADD the sequence of 32 bits in register R1 to register R2 ...
However, these simple rules don't make complicated software---otherwise, many of us here on HN would have to find other work.
Rather, complicated humans make complicated software using these simple rules. (Digression: It's of course too hard to make modern software using these simple rules, so we use complicated toolchains instead to deal with the simple rules.)
Even with Conway's Game of Life, it is often overlooked that in order to actually run a game simulation, you either need to build a very complicated electronic computer to host the "simple" simulation, or you need a complex intelligent life form with a pencil and a great deal of both paper and patience to carry out the rules step-by-step.
Moreover, the simple rules for Conway's Game of Life were created (or discovered?) in the complicated brain of mathematician John Conway. It seems only the most intelligent and complex minds come up with these "simple" mathematical rules like Einstein's "E=mc^2" or Newton's "f=ma".
Also, I know from experience that randomly seeding Conway's Life almost never produces interesting results, such as long lived stable colonies with "gliders" frolicking to and fro. An intelligent human needs to fine tune the initial conditions for the game to get interesting universes that don't quickly become lifeless or stagnant. Interesting universes are sufficiently rare that, when found, are worthy of publishing and nerding out with your friends over.
So Wolframism in its supreme form says the Universe began with simple rules and these simple rules created stars and planets, humans and their brains. But simple rules need a machine to run the rules, a machine more complicated than the rules themselves. And even given a machine to run the rules, most rule sets and most initial configurations produce dead universes.