It is an axiom of computing that a Turing machine ought to be able to run any program for any other computer that is likewise a Turing machine; in other words, computers can impersonate each other. This not only lays certain theoretical foundations for computing, it also holds a promise for digital heritage, as new machines can emulate older ones. Thus, simulation has important implications for archives, museums, and the preservation of digital culture. Since the 1950s, scholars foresaw that once digital computing became fast enough to support more complex operations, it would furnish “simulation for vividness” in models that would strike observers as more clear and convincing, “simulation for deduction and exploration” that would make questions tractable or help explore them in new dimensions, and by the same token also provide for “simulation as archive,” whereby models store the collected knowledge of an entire discipline. This assemblage of a growing number of interdisciplinary contacts supports a model that would then itself be both archive and computer.