why compsci?

I may not be needing to learn how to program in any deep sense. I may not need to go so far as to become a professional or anything like that. But I do need to learn at least something along those lines, since computers are effectively the defining technology of our era. The significance is obvious. And yet it is not computers themselves that interest me. I'm am more concerned with our relationship to them. I am interested in how we can use them to improve our lives. I am interested on how they have and will continue to shape culture.
Human nature hasn't changed much in thousands of years, but our situations certainly have changed, and that generall has to do with whatever technological advances have done. The most basic technology is a lever, always a technology gives us leverage of one sort or another. So what kind of leverage does a computer gives us? Initially computers were used to do mathematical calculations for us, and computer science departments are to this day often associated with the math departments. It seems more natural to me to think of it as having more in common with the engineering department, but we're using them in almost every field these days, so I don't know that it even matters. We all need at least to have operational literacy, even if we do not learn to peek under the hood or build any software of our own.
An individual machine can be quite powerful in itself, but then it takes on super powers once it connects to huge networks. There's the standard file sharing utility, and some distributed processing that goes on, but much of what it has been for us recently is about connecting humans to each other, the so-called 'social media' craze that empowers individual human beings to express themselves, to publish their work, and to learn from what others have done along the same lines. So in this context, the Internet represents a revolution in learning. So edtech is key to investigate. The MOOC phenomenon is still in the process of being born, in my opinion, although the faddishness of it is starting to wear off. We need to consider what realistic expectations we should have for the way information technology can more efficiently meet our learning needs.
On the opposite end of the spectrum from the field of education, we have the growing trend of espionage. Using codes for sending secret messages has been around for a long time, thousands of years. It's only been in the past century that it seems to have taken on a life of its own. Recently the trend has switched gears to mining massive amounts of seemingly trivial information. We can learn new information by way of open source materials. And it begins to look like anyone is a potential threat to our and our friends' welfare.
There are many potential uses computer science can be put, such as the Internet-of-things that's supposedly just around the corner, but I am trying to understand which of those are most important, most fundamental, in terms of how it will or should change our situations. Rather than us being made slaves of the new shiny objects, I think we need to think carefully about what good we most need this technology to afford us. Not all change is for the better, after all. And such a powerful tool should be used with caution. More reflection on this will come as I learn more about the topic.