The same effect could be achieved by taking a low resolution image and each turn, making each pixel the color of a random neighbor. The only thing this has to do with the Game of Life is both can be simulated by copying one array to another and applying some simple rules.
Lisp Machines would have become cheap. Similar software divergence would happen. There would be an increased separation from normal people and programmers. Lisp would become a serious thing used by all programmers.
Or maybe another thing like UNIX would've replaced Lisp Machines quickly.
Why do people advocate Python and not a dialect of Lisp for beginners? Are prefix notation and parentheses really that terrible in exchange for a completely unified syntax?
This is really cool, but I fully expect you to fail.
Something simple to say like emergent AI can be ridiculously complex in practice. I bet you really have all the experience you claim to have, but I still don't expect you to get very far.
You have quite a few descriptions of how the game will end up, but saying things like "it will be fun and all these other things" dismisses how you're going to make it that way.
I think the coolest promise was that the game would be deterministic.
I'm not sure if you have lots of experience making games, but in my experience games written from the ground up never really become complete games.
If you're not already, you may want to consider hiring a team or getting help developing this so that you can focus on the things you think you can do most effectively or that are most crucial to the final gameplay.
Anyway, I really hope this is going to be all you say it will be.