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You might want to read "His Master's Voice" or "Roadside Picnic" by Stanislaw Lem. The first one especially concerns what you're talking about, and the second (basis for "Stalker") is a little more of a tangent on it. Same for "Solaris" honestly. Lem's perspective on cosmic unknowable intelligence was really unique.

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Roadside Picnic was by the Strugatsky brothers. (Lem wrote some other relevant things, yes -- maybe particularly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summa_Technologiae which I haven't read.)

Of course you're right, my mistake. And it's sitting right here next to me... embarrassing. Anyhow, all worth reading.

Lem wrote about software-defined matter in a more humorous way in Observation on the Spot. It was an exploration of a society whose needs are automatically fulfilled.

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