If John C. Wright accomplished nothing else, with The Golden Age, except construct a universe in which the following exchange was sensical and relevant, he would have achieved a major coup

“Do you see him?”
“No, mistress. But I see a fat man dressed as Polonious. Unless I miss my guess that is the segment of me with Phaethon.”
“But it doesn’t look like you…”
“Ah, but look at where his robes touch the grass.”
“Webbed feet?”
“Any man with penguin feet must be me! I’d recognize myself anywhere. Should I blast him with my heat ray?”

However he does so much more.
I also liked this little exchange when our viewpoint character discovers his privacy has been invaded

“How dare you monitor my brain activity without permission?! Have you no concern for privacy?”
“The privacy curtain was not in use. Kirlian auras and chakra-energy broadcasts are visible.”
“Not in the real world. No such sense perception exists.”
“Aura-reading sense perceptions are allowed by the Revised Aesthetic Standard. You prefer the Consensus Aesthetic? Apologies are rendered.”

Not quite sure how he is going to keep it going for 3 books, but Wright definitely (not to mention defiantly) proves that it’s possible to write compelling post-Singularity fiction.