[eternalban]

Whenever the physical world intrudes on the illusory "virtual world of computers", the man behind the curtain is observed in its less than superlative aspects and we're less prone to attribute OZ powers to "software".

Software /is/ magical in many aspects. But its own inherent magic has never been anything other than sleight of hand sort of magic. Even then, software magic borrows from the glory of /insanely/ complex physical machines, and various wondrous features of Nature itself.

One case in point was when Moore's Law and economy collided and the practice had to ramp up on concurrency and deal with SMP. A bit later (and still on going) we're ramping up on distribution and dealing with CAP. In the former case, the illusory 'indivisible' platform was seen to have a sort of geography. In the latter case, the illusory notions of linear 'time' and smooth 'space' was smashed.

OP's remedy for a software-driven world's ailments is software literacy. But the physical head poking through the curtain should make it clear a large subset of these ailments have to do with physical things, such as computing devices, infrastructure, access to energy, and even softer concerns such as legal and political cover for making, providing, and operating software.

Imagine if every single person was a world class chemist and biologist. Would we be able to do away with drug companies? You have that amazing molecule all figured out -- do you have the physical capability for actually realizing it?