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The Life-cycle of Software Objects\xa0is a story by Ted Chiang about our relationship with artificial intelligence and what it means to be alive.\xa0 It's kind of a peculiar read but well worth it, as we quickly discovered.\xa0 Joining Dion and Phil to discuss the tale is our guest host, the delightful Dee - otherwise known as 'Faint Dreams.'

Now, don't go skipping straight past.\xa0 I know what you're thinking.\xa0 You're thinking 'I've never heard of it, never read it, so why listen to the podcast?'\xa0 Well, Firstly we're bloody brilliant.\xa0 Honest, guv'nor.\xa0 Secondly, it's actually a pretty quick read - a novella rather than a book (Around 60 pages.)\xa0 Thirdly,\xa0The Life-cycle Of Software Objects\xa0is available\xa0right here\xa0for\xa0free, and Fourthly it's an absolute corker.\xa0 We've all had ideas and questions exploding in our brains long after we finished reading it.

So you're not going anywhere, right?

Right :-D

You snuggle down and start reading, I'll just sit here and... I dunno, tweet or something.

Dum de dum...\xa0 de dum...\xa0 de dum...

Ready?\xa0 Brilliant.

For those of you interested in reading more of Ted Chiang's work, there is a round-up of his stories at\xa0Metafilter, all free and perfectly legal.\xa0 Some are in text, some are audiobooks.\xa0 Here also is a separate link for the story that Dee mentions right at the end of the podcast, called 'Liking What You See: A Documentary.'

Want to know a little more about Artificial Intelligence?\xa0 You could listen to Dissecting Worlds (cheap shot) or have a look at this\xa0wikipedia entry.\xa0 Most edifying.

As ever, feedback is appreciated. You can tweet @Dion_Scrolls, @Phlambler or @FaintDreams, e-mail us at\xa0scrolls@hotmail.co.uk\xa0or share your views with everyone in the Comments section below.

We hope you enjoy listening to this as much as\xa0we enjoyed making it.

Keep reading.