The hardware is more “real” than the software in that you can always locate it in space-time — if it’s not in the bedroom, somebody must have moved it to the study, etc. On the other hand, the software is more “real” in the sense that you can smash the hardware back to dust (“kill” the computer) and the software still exists, and can “materialize” or “manifest” again in a different computer. (Any speculations about reincarnation at this point are the responsibility of the reader, not of the author.)
