All activities which have no connection with object or material mass are the result of software. Images themselves are hardware. Information about these images is software... In many cases an object is of much less value than the software concerning the object. The object is the end of a system. The software is an open continuing system. The experience of seeing something first hand is no longer of value in a software controlled society, as anything seen through the media carries just as much energy as first hand experience. We do not question whether the things that happen on radio or television have actually occurred. The fact that we can confront them mentally through electronics is sufficient for us to know that they exist... In the same way, most of the art that is produced today ends up as information about art.

Les Levine, Software, Information Technology: Its New Meaning for Art, 1971