Software is an interesting word, isn't it?
In briefest summary, I was writing programs on the SWAC in 1953 at UCLA. At the time, the SWAC was one of about a dozen computers in the whole U.S. When I first hoked up the word -- to distinguish programs from hardware, of course -- people said, "Huh?" I explained that 'soft' meant changeable. People then and for years later kind of sneered "Software...[pause]...I see..."Digital turns all cultural durity into software. I suppose that's what people mean by the New Age.
