This comment is related to the title but not the content. Several years ago I read "The Planiverse" by Dewdney [1], which I thought was delightful. The premise is that a CS professor and his students simulate a Game-of-life/Lenia type system for a while, and then in one case they learn that they can actually communicate with them. The book is clearly inspired by Flatland (which I'd also read and like).

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Planiverse