Who best immanentizies the eschaton?

My brother asked me today, “Which author do you think best immanentizes the eschaton?”

Not being a moron, I immediately replied, “Obviously it’s Charlie Stross.”

Before I could finish typing that, he suggested a Mastodon poll to ask people, to which I replied, “The poll should be ‘After Charlie Stross, what author next best immanentizes the eschaton?'”

We speculated a bit, throwing out names like William Gibson, Bruce Stirling, Neal Stephenson, and Cory Doctorow.

I assume this was all prompted by the most recent Pluralistic, in which Cory Doctorow says, after explaining why, if their AI is so close to having god-like powers, anyone would be asking for money for their AI, when they could just be using the AI to make money for them, says:

So it’s not surprising that we don’t ask why these AI god-botherers need our stupid money while they’re immanentizing the eschaton. Why would they operate a hospital if they could go meta and sell the doctorbots to the MBAs running the hospital?

Source: https://pluralistic.net/2026/07/13/go-meta-meta/#meta-meta-meta

Anyway, at this point I put the question to confer.to (so I don’t know which AI model responded), but it gave me a great reply:

The Core “Eschaton Immanentizers” (Closest to Stross)

1. Vernor Vinge ⭐

Why: He literally coined the term “technological singularity” in his 1993 essay. Stross stands on Vinge’s shoulders.

Key Works: A Fire Upon the Deep (zones of thought = different physical laws based on intelligence density), A Deepness in the Sky, Marooned in Realtime.

Vibe: More optimistic than Stross, but equally committed to the idea that superintelligence changes everything, including physics.

2. Greg Egan ⭐⭐

Why: If Stross is the journalist of the singularity, Egan is the mathematician. He goes harder into the ontological breakdown. His characters upload, fragment, merge, and cease to be human in ways that make Stross look cozy.

Key Works: Permutation City (simulated reality, consciousness as substrate-independent), Diaspora (post-human civilization across dimensions), Quarantine (reality modification).

Vibe: Colder, more rigorous, less humor. The eschaton isn’t just immanentized; it’s proven.

3. Hannu Rajaniemi

Why: Writes about societies that already live in the post-singularity world Stross describes arriving.

Key Works: The Quantum Thief trilogy (solar system transformed by post-human technologies, memory as currency, gogolized consciousness).

Vibe: Dense, playful, requires work—but depicts the aftermath of eschatonization brilliantly.

4. Ken MacLeod

Why: Stross’s contemporary and friend; they share a intellectual milieu (Edinburgh SF scene). MacLeod explores similar themes but often from a more political/ideological angle.

Key Works: The Fall Revolution series (The Star Fraction, The Stone Canal), The Execution Channel.

Vibe: More focused on how ideologies (libertarianism, socialism, etc.) interact with singularity tech.

I mean, really, I don’t know why we didn’t have Verner Vinge in mind, or Greg Egan. I’ve read both, and I’m sure Steven has as well. They’re obviously on top.

I don’t know if Steven has read Hannu Rajaniemi, but I’ve at least read The Quantum Thief, and, yes, I’d put him on this list.

The AI also rather dismissed our guesses:

Your Guesses, Evaluated

Author | Verdict | Notes
William Gibson | Adjacent | Cyberpunk is pre-singularity. His later work (The Peripheral) touches on it, but he’s more about near-future tech’s social impact than ontological rupture.
Bruce Sterling | Adjacent | Same as Gibson—cyberpunk pioneer, but more interested in design, aesthetics, and near-term futures than the actual singularity event.
Neal Stephenson | Partial | The Diamond Age and Snow Crash have elements, but he’s more interested in memes and social structures than the hard break of singularity. Anathem gets closer.
Cory Doctorow | Partial | Writes about these themes (especially in Walkaway and Makers), but with a more accessible, activist, optimistic lens. Less “reality breaks,” more “how do we organize after tech changes?”

The AI actually goes on a bit, mentioning several other authors including Richard Morgan, Ted Chiang, and others, but I’ll just go hang my head in shame rather than copy and paste more AI output.

(Normally my posts are entirely my own writing. This post is an exception, in that it includes a bunch of copy/pasted AI output. I think it’s adequately tagged, though, and it’s clear that I’m not trying to pass off AI output as my own writing. Because I thought it was funny, I also generated an AI image to be the “featured image” for this post. Once again, I hope it’s clear that I’m not trying to pass off AI output as my own.)