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Wetware, also known as liveware or meatware, is a term generally used to refer to you, that is, a person operating a computer. It refers to human beings (programmers, operators, administrators) attached to a computer system, as opposed to the system's hardware or software. The term is frequently used in humorous contexts; for example, in the frequently wry humour of technical support staff, a wetware-related problem is a (semi)polite euphemism for user error.
The term is probably drawn from the novels of Rudy Rucker, who often used the term (even as a title of one of his books) to refer to the human nervous system, as opposed to computer hardware or software. "Wetware has 7 plus or minus 2 temporary registers." The numerical allusion is to a classic 1957 article by George A. Miller, "The magical number 7 plus or minus two: some limits in our capacity for processing information", published in Psychological Review, pages 63-97.
The reason why a person can described as "ware" is derived from the relationship between hardware and software. Computer equipment, or hardware, cannot be useful without programs to run, and those programs, or software, are useless without something to carry out their instructions. Similarly, even if computer hardware and software exist together, neither of them can do anything without an operator. Therefore a human being, or wetware, is an essential element of computing. The field of artificial intelligence complicates the concept of wetware, since in that case, the hardware/software would be acting on its own.
Because of the inherent limitations of wetware memory, compared to computers, systems such as the DNS have been created.
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