Or call it a mathematical model. It’s possible to work within a model and establish truths that follow within it as verifiably true assuming the conditions of the model. That’s actually a pretty interesting way to work in mathematics - ie whether you’re adding the point at infinity in complex analysis or not makes the topology similar to a sphere or plane, respectively.
Most of physics is a mathematical model.
Stephen Wolfram is creating computational models. It’s a natural evolution of reasoning about the universe with the potential to ask if the structure of the universe is computational itself.