why software might be superior knowledge

Software is not a product. It is a medium in which we store knowledge. Historically, in the order of their coming about, there have been 5 such media:

1. DNA
2. Brains
3. Hardware
4. Books
5. Software

The reason software has become the storage medium of choice is that knowledge in software has been made active. It has escaped the confinement and volatility of knowledge in brains; it avoids the passivity of knowledge in books; it has the flexibility and speed of change missing from knowledge in DNA or hardware.

This analysis originates from Philip Armour. The five orders of ignorance.