This reminded me of Chiang's 2008 story "Exhalation" (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/ http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation

This reminded me of Chiang's 2008 story "Exhalation" (http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/ http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/exhalation/), which explores cognition and entropy through the idea of minds which are built as pneumatic engines.