In this talk Frederica explores the way in which an understanding of digital technologies requires a close critical engagement with software, on which such technologies are based. In turn, the question of what software is and of the kind of knowledge that can be produced about it outside of the boundaries of computer sciences cannot be addressed without radically reconsidering what we mean by knowledge in relation to technology in a broader sense. Today the cultural study of software is the object of fields as varied as Software Studies, Code Studies, Critical Code Studies, the Digital Humanities and Digital Media Studies. She argues that these fields could benefit from a radical rethinking of the conceptual framework of instrumentality and the way in which technology has been understood primarily by the Western philosophical tradition.