Craig,
When I left my previous profession in 1991 to develop software, one of my very senior colleagues took me aside and told me "Computer systems are like the pyramids. They are a superb feat of human determination, engineering, capability. But what are they for?" ;-)
For the first time in over a decade, I think I'm starting to appreciate his simple question.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1