The most probably explaintion for this essay is that the author is trying to promote a new way of thinking, you can be spiritual while still having an atheist belief. It is a very effective way of promoting it, through a story.
But, there is a very slight possibility albiet very unlikley, that he may be right.
In either case it doesn't matter.
In his essay he touches on the subject of humans evolving into something else. I and many other people believe this is happening allready. It's called the Singularity. (Please check: or )
We are on the verge of a new transition as a species, but we have no idea how it's going to happen, or what the result will be. We can only assign unrealisitic probabilities. However some believe that we can affect the outcome of these events by making the idea more public, so that it wouldn't become solely a military/government endeavour.