Paul Saffo, an American futurologist, recently told the Telegraph that the ultra-rich may slowly evolve into a separate species thanks to medical advances. Saffo imagines a world of replacement organs, sophisticated robots, self-driving cars, and artificial limbs that are superior to the real thing — all available to only the very wealthy. He says, “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.” (HT: Economist’s View) [%comments]
Species Park Avenue?
TAGS: wealth
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Speciation only occurs when populations don’t interbreed. As long as either (a) people’s wealth fluctuates significantly, or (b) wealthy people continue to be attracted to people of more modest means, interbreeding will continue.
Besides, all of those medical advantages are primarily useful later on in life, not during one’s peak child-bearing years.
Apparently those who do not read H.G. Welles are doomed to repeat him.
This is the reasons why real capitalism is incompatible with inheritance.
It has always struck me as incredible that very attractive teenaged children of the poor are not simply scooped up by the wealthy using the lure of providing for them a life of luxury and wealth.
But of course this HAS been done throughout human history. Sieving the pretty children from the general populace has been the right of kings for millenia.
I suspect that much human evolution can be seen in this fact. We would be more hairy if hairy women were seen as hot.
So yes, I am certain than the human race tends to drift into two camps, punctuated by revolutions. Keep those torches and pitchforks at the ready.
They won’t be so well-off after they have to pay gazillions of dollars for genetic engineering and neural enhancers.
For some reason radical egalitarians seem to regard any technological advance as a slam on the poor. “Cancer cured: poor, minorities hardest hit.”
@Eric M Jones – actually, the scooping up the pretty ones helps ensure that the two genetic populations don’t become segregated. Getting a prostitute pregnant is also mixes the gene pools. Also remember that natural selection doesn’t care directly about the size of your 401k, it only cares about reproductive success. If you give up bearing children to make money, you are tiptoeing down an evolutionary dead end.
What’s the difference between a futurologist and a science fiction writer?
…
No, seriously, what’s the difference?
Ben, you beat me to the Time Machine joke! Morlocks rule! Eloi drool!