At first this sounds like an outlandish and self-serving claim. civilization got along just fine without Microsoft Windows, right? But software is more than the program you use to send email or compose a report; it has seeped into every cranny of our lives, without many of us noticing. It is in our kitchen gadgets and cars, toys and buildings. Our businesses and banks, our elections and our news media, our movies and our transportation networks, our health care and national defense, our scientific research and basic utility services — the stuff of our daily existence hangs from fragile threads of computer code."

Scott Rosenberg, Dreaming in Code