Yeah I agree completely. I have been thinking lately about that as a defining feature of science fiction, or I guess speculative fiction more broadly; thought

Yeah I agree completely. I have been thinking lately about that as a defining feature of science fiction, or I guess speculative fiction more broadly; thought experiments into other "us"es. What it's like to be something else. I don't mean to say that as if it's some novel position, just a particular facet that has been resonating. The eschatology angle is a super interesting one I hadn't considered. If anything though, especially for the millenarian/apocalyptic flavors, it seems like almost the platonic ideal of being unable to imagine a successor; we are the end, and when we end, the world ends, preserving us forever. And incidentally, there is still resistance there. "Don't immanentize the eschaton!"