Interactive computer games are beginning to enter the educational and instructional fields under the flag of a more ‘playful’ approach to learning. But on a much deeper level, games herald a new computer age that is based on simulation and generative, dynamic data instead of the current approach of representation and static data. The paper traces the current computing approach to a platonic understanding of objects and proposes a new relationist approach that replaces data altogether and opens a true ‘post-Gutenberg’ era based on simulation. The computer, currently a static learning ‘assistant’ at most, could become a co-learner and dialog partner.