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The history of software is of course very very new. And the whole IT industry is really only 6,70 years old which is extraordinary and to be so close to the birth of a major new technology, a major new discipline is quite remarkable given where we got to in those 6,70 years. And the progression has been not so much a progression as a stampede because Moore’s Law, the rapid expansion in the power of computing and the rapid fall of the cost of computing and storage and communications has made it feasible for information technology to move into all sorts of areas of life that were never originally envisaged. What has happened is that there has been as I said a stampede for people to pick the low-hanging fruit. And that is what’s guided the development of software and information technology over the past decades and continues to do so with a number of consequences that we will explore.

The history of software is relatively recent, with the IT industry emerging over the last 60-70 years. This rapid development, driven by Moore’s Law, has resulted in increased computing power and decreased costs, facilitating technology’s integration into various life aspects. Consequently, there has been a rush to exploit accessible opportunities, shaping the software and IT landscape significantly.