Re: Will the Rich Evolve Into Different Species?

[Alex DeLarge]

Obwon wrote:
> On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:37:15 -0500, "tdny" <td...@live.com>
> wrote:
>
>> http://blogs.wsj.com/wealth/2009/10/28/will-the-rich-evolve-into-different-species/
>>
>> The rich have already created their own country.
>>
>> Are they about to create their own species?
>>
>> Futurologist Paul Saffo says rapid advances in
>> biotechnology will enable people to grow their
>> own replacement organs,
>>
>> take specially tailored drugs and use
>> robots and artificial limbs to live longer.
>>
>> But, he says,
>> the advances will be affordable only by the super-rich.
>>
>> That raises the prospect of a new,
>> biological divide between the classes,
>> with the
>>
>> "rich evolving into a different species entirely,
>> leaving his not-so-rich counterpart behind."
>>
>> "I sometimes wonder if the very rich can live,
>> on average, 20 years longer than the poor.
>>
>> That's 20 more years of earning and saving.
>>
>> Think about wealth and power and the advantages
>> that you pass on to your children."
>>
>> This is, of course,
>> a disturbing and somewhat shocking prospect.
>>
>> Our wealth divide could become a health divide,
>> which would further increase the wealth divide.
>>
>> But is it realistic?
>>
>> For one, we already have a health divide,
>> where the wealthy receive (on the whole)
>> much better care and technological benefits
>> than the nonwealthy.
>>
>> Indeed, they have enjoyed better health care for centuries,
>> and they have yet to form a race of super-rich cyborgs--in part
>> because the wealthy in America is a fluid and rapidly changing group.
>>
>> What is more, advances in health care have tended to
>> spread rapidly from the rich to everyone else.
>>
>> Just like computers, gadgets or cars,
>> health-care technology that at first is
>> priced solely for the wealthy is quickly
>> scaled to larger markets and sold en masse.
>>
>> Still, we have never seen the potential
>> for bio-tech advancements like we see today -
>> coupled of course with growing global inequality.
>>
>> Do you think the rich will create their own super-race?
>>
>>
>> And what would it look like?
>
> I can't get a vision of a health divide being allowed to
> grow very wide. After all, the weathy are surrounded by
> non-wealthy people who would be way too motivated to get a
> slice of the pie for themselves. Mistrust would eat away
> the fruit from the inside out. Nor can any measures
> effectively work against it, since it spreads outward like
> a disease. To see what I mean, start by imagining some
> superweathy person buying immortality from some doctor
> operating a clinic in the Swiss Alps.

You are on some serious drugs there, Oddsod...

Maybe go back to your L.Ron Hubbard books and chill out...