Every time I read anything from Xelee it feels like Neil deGrasse Tyson's wet dreams. Down to romanticizing science to a fantastical degree to the point it's nauseating. Hate science fiction settings that reach retarded power levels but don't admit it's just fucking magic at that point. "No, all of this is totally plausible whilst adhering to science. Believe me, please." Then you read that the Xelee aren't even the top dogs in their own multiverse, and you can't help but laugh.
It's why I love Star Wars and Starship's Mage. They admit none of this is possible without some kind of supernatural force.
Then you get to the Downstreamers and it feels like whoever wrote them got beat up by LOTR larpers in grade school, and shoved in a locker every day. "I will make a scientifically advanced race so ahead of us they solo 99.9999 % of fiction. That will show them!" Oh, and get this, they're post humanity. It's what humanity becomes. We are just that smart we become beyond any god. Which even Neil deGrasse Tyson would have problems with because he kinda has a dim view of our importance in the universe.
Even the way they're described is so self-masturbatory. Religious people who think we're the greatest creation of some abstract deity don't glorify humanity as much as these people do. Cause even they draw the line before the point where they are like: "Yes, humanity is the greatest and first intelligence ever. We're actually God."
this isn’t an indictment on xeelee or manifold or any of baxter’s writing, but I find people who need fiction to 100% conform to science to be some of the most boring and insufferable people I have ever encountered