Wang's Carpets by Greg Egan

"Wang's Carpets" is a 1995 science fiction novelette by Greg Egan. It is about a group of cloned beings who discover an amazing life form on a planet orbiting Vega. Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell: In a far future Earth the majority of citizens are software clones of humans who live in communities know as polises. One of these polises, Carter-Zimmermann, copies itself a thousand times and sends each copy to a different star in the galaxy. They are searching for extraterrestrial life to help disprove a theory that the universe was created solely for mankind. This story follows one of the copies of Carter-Zimmermann that arrive at Orpheus, a watery world orbiting Vega, where they discover one huge, thin life form that ends up being more amazing than anyone ever imagined. Vega's sole planet, Orpheus, had been a featureless blip to the best lunar interferometers; now Paolo gazed down in its blue-green crescent, ten thousand kilometers below Carter-Zimmerman itself. Orpheus was…