Wolfram only half gets it.

His construct is that the world can be best explained by viewing it and the complex result of the interactions of simple "programs" or algorithms. That is good as far as it goes. He is hitting the target, but not the bulls eye.

If you take a closer look it is really the feedback loops.

Whether you are looking at how such a complex world can be built out of a handful of particles (6 types of Quarks, 6 types of Leptons floating in 4 types of forces... or if you want one type of string)... or how such a wide and varied ecosystem such as earth can be built around a single molecule... DNA. It is all driven by feedback loops.

Even small changes in the loops can have wide ranging impacts. It applies to pretty much anything complex that exists in the world.

For example, here is an article applying just the concept of modifying the speed of feedback loops to warfare and business.
http://ceo-notes.us/samplearticle.htm

If you use this approach to analyzing networks... even complex human networks you will see its power as a tool to devise ways of understanding and influencing the behavior of such networks.

I hope that I am not coming off as too arrogant. Wolfram is a genius. But I think he is being held hostage by his own experience with his Mathmatica product which is skewing his analysis toward the approach that his software package took toward solving mathematical problems.

The world is far too complex to be analyzed and defined with the limited constructs used by Mathmatica uses to relatively limited solve problems. The universe is too large, too complex and too infinite to be well defined by the computer algorithm model that Wolfram is using. Just as it was too complex to be defined by Newton's laws of physics.

Even simple human behavior is too complex for Wolframs model. Think about this for a few days, then go to the link above (and remember that article limits itself only to the impact of the speed of the feedback loop).

Bottom line is - if you want a practical tool for analyzing and manipulating the behavior of complex systems, focus on the feedback loops.