Ted Chiang! He has some stories that deal with similar issues, like "The Lifecycle of Software Objects". But I enjoy his people-centered stories more, my favorite is "Liking What You See: A Documentary", you can read it online here: http://www.ibooksonline.com/88/Text/liking.html . Another great one is "Hell is the Absence of God".

Alas no. I read a range of sci-fi but am not aware of other authors who write such amazing speculative fiction. He really takes sci-fi ideas to unpredictable yet believable conclusions. It is real hard sci-fi.

If you do discover similar authors, please let me know.

Recommended reading:

All his short stories are amazing. I'd highly recommend them:

http://www.amazon.com/Luminous-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00E84BABW

http://www.amazon.com/Axiomatic-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B00FDWOBZ...

Some of his novels are hit and miss, but certainly worth checking out. This is probably my favourite:

http://www.amazon.com/Permutation-City-Greg-Egan-ebook/dp/B0...

Yeah, that is great stuff. The language of our times capturing some very old themes, biblical even, under an interpretation. Primo betraying Sapphire's creator/god, the violent escape of the created from a realm governed by the creator for his benefit to another world of their own design.

Peter F . Hamilton and Charles Stross are the next two authors you want to check out. :)

Stanisław Lem