{
  "id": "software.digital",
  "term": "software",
  "sense": "digital",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "review",
  "level": 17,
  "arena": "software.digital",
  "domain": "software",
  "style": null,
  "definition": "Data arranged in a regular pattern that enables a device to function.",
  "folk_gloss": null,
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "data.information",
      "pattern.regularity",
      "device.tool",
      "order.arrangement",
      "regular.frequency",
      "make.verb",
      "work.effort"
    ],
    "interaction": "Data is ordered into a recurring pattern that, when processed by a device, brings about functional behavior through sustained effort-like changes.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "executable structure",
      "persistent operational pattern",
      "information-driven functionality"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "The Linux kernel, first released in 1991, coordinates hardware and software on millions of devices by interpreting binary instructions.",
      "domain": "computing"
    },
    {
      "text": "The Hubble Space Telescope's onboard flight software corrected its mirror's spherical aberration during operations in 1993.",
      "domain": "engineering"
    },
    {
      "text": "In 2000, the ILO estimated that 80% of industrial programmable logic controllers ran proprietary firmware to manage assembly lines.",
      "domain": "economics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "products.goods",
      "note": "software is a product of changes on matter",
      "type": "is-a"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [
    "browser.software",
    "program.digital",
    "server.digital"
  ],
  "forms": [
    "software"
  ],
  "closed": false,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "openrouter:openai/gpt-oss-120b",
    "date": "2026-07-29",
    "confidence": 0.6,
    "reconciled": {
      "by": "openrouter:qwen/qwen3-235b-a22b-2507",
      "date": "2026-07-31",
      "changed": "definition",
      "note": "Definition tightened to remove self-reference and align with components; missing constitutive concepts added. Original definition was vague and leaned on unspecified mechanisms like 'make' and 'work' "
    }
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-software.digital"
}