I have a particular bee in my bonnet about stories where humanity has uploaded itself into some kind of virtual environment, and live a post-mortal, post-physical existence. I like thinking about questions of how we would pass our time if we could be and do anything we wanted, and how much or little we would choose to interact with the real world. My favorites in this vein are by Greg Egan, particularly Permutation City and Diaspora. I also enjoyed The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect by Roger Williams.
Who else writes this kind of stuff?
Every Version of You by Grace Chan
Accelerando by Charles Stross digs into this a bit in its second half.
Neverwhere by Tad Williams has people living in a virtual world, but it’s at the dawn of a post-physical society.
Donnerjack by roger Zelazny and Jane Linskold has people living in a virtual world, but takes a mystic turn at it.
Donnerjack doesn't reread well.
Definitely fits the bill. I loved that novel.
Ken Macleod's Corporation Wars trilogy
Also his Stone Canal series.
Slaving away down in the math mines. :)
Vurt, Pollen, and other books by Jeff Noon are essentially about getting to that phase of existence, albeit in surrealistic ways.
Karl Schroeder's Lady of Mazes plays with this.
Walter John Williams's Implied Spaces has a lot of this in it.
Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief trilogy isn't "post-physical" specifically, but exists in that moment of time when multiple post-physical paradigms are developing and coming into conflict with each other--and with those who want to remain physical. There these great orbital megastructures that house the uploaded (largely forcibly) consciousnesses of the living, who can sometimes appropriate physical bodies to operate outside of the community; there are groups of voluntary uploads that are "free" from the oversight of the megastructures; and there are people living in a physical reality that is so altered by technology that major components of it are non-physical as well. I love it, but it's a really, really tough read.
Neal Stephenson's Fall, or Dodge in Hell also deals with the transition from physical to non-physical, but I can't recommend it. The physical portion of the novel is superb (among his best), but as it progresses and more of it moves to the post-physical, it takes on a register that Stephenson really just doesn't work well in. It's surprisingly insightful, but becomes more and more of a slog the further I got into it.
Bobiverse
While not directly set in a post-physical realm, many of Iain M. Banks' Culture novels are centered around the Sublime, a post physical dimension various species have ascended over vast history. Lots of themes of the implications of this for the Sublimed themselves, as well as those still in the physical universe
Floating Point by Stefan Gagne. https://www.stefangagne.com/floatingpoint/
Love Greg Egan - no one does it better.
Lots of good recommendations here. I will add the novella Cookie Monster by Vernor Vinge.
"The Old Axolotl" by Jacek Dukaj
Quantum Thief has many variations on post Earth virtual humanities.
The Golden Oecumene Trilogy by John C. Wright is very good.
This is what the OP is looking for. Reading these books was so much fun and thought provoking.
Glass House - Charles Stross
only read the first chapter but Quantum Thief as well i think?
Glass House is more post-human than post-physical, but people are extremely fluid about nearly every aspect of themselves.
If you enjoyed Prime Intellect, you might enjoy the Passages in the Void stories by the same author - it touches quite strongly on what you're looking for.
There's a lengthy series of My Little Pony fanfic I'm trying to remember the name of that's very relevant to your interests: a MLP-themed VR pretty much devours the entire world, and beyond. Damnit what is its name. edit: Friendship is Optimal.
This one is about metaphysical post-mortality, not VR post-mortality, but you might find Jane Roberts' Oversoul Seven trilogy to be interesting. If you are violently allergic to New Age ideas this one's not for you though.
Metaplanetary and its sequel Superluminal by Tony Daniel.
Peter F. Hamilton has such a society in the Void Trilogy. Part of the Commonwealth saga. That particular virtual world is not explored much in the story though, except for one character who re-downloads back into their original body when they are needed in the physical world.
Glasshouse by Charles Stross comes to mind.
Surface Detail, you'll like it if you thought Prime Intellect was ok (bad)
Ted Chiang has some really good versions of this kind of thing in an abstract way, you should read both of his collections. If you're looking for more Roger Williams I'm sure there's plenty more of masturbatory singularity crap out there. I can certainly give you some genre recommendations if you like that kind of wish fulfillment stuff but it's not pretty.
About half of Banks' Feersum endjinn takes place in simulations, too. Have fun sounding out the quarter of the book written with eccentric orthography and a thick Scottish accent!
It's jerk behavior to shit on someone's taste like that. Bad form, ten demerits.
Edit: I'll take the masturbatory depravity of Prime Intellect over the saccharine moralizing of Chiang any day.