I think the general idea is that software will certainly be in the history books, but it is so flexible that we don't know yet if it will be described as plague

I think the general idea is that software will certainly be in the history books, but it is so flexible that we don't know yet if it will be described as plague or panacea. I recommend reading or re-reading https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html https://www.gnu.org/gnu/manifesto.html (...remember the part about asteroid mining? It's near this part: "In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the postscarcity world [...]") And there are in fact a lot of documents on this topic available here: https://www.gnu.org/server/sitemap.html#directory-philosophy https://www.gnu.org/server/sitemap.html#directory-philosophy