[markhollis]

I think one can experience something related in either writing or even just playing with puppets. J.K. Rowling had to 'program' the rules of her wizarding world, in a way. As a kid, I used to play some kind of civilization and empire game with K'nex pieces that I used as little puppets, without knowing that computers existed. Part of it is certainly the joy of building a dynamic model of a virtual world.