OP makes some really smart points, but I can't shake the feeling that they're living in some kind of alternate reality fundamentally different from mine. Yes, i

OP makes some really smart points, but I can't shake the feeling that they're living in some kind of alternate reality fundamentally different from mine. Yes, if most people around you are very smart, or very wealthy, then intelligence or money are not really defining characteristics anymore. Intelligence and money define you in as much as they are vectors of power, but how much power they bring you over your environment is directly a function of how much more you have than others around you. When everybody possesses these things equally, they don't confer you any power over others anymore. Yes, it's true that in the science-fiction world described by the OP, which might become a reality in 200 years, or maybe not, intelligence and looks will have been commoditized and won't mean much anymore. In exactly the same way that in the post-scarcity economy (if such a thing is ever to be), money won't matter anymore. But that is not the world we live in. In my world, really smart people are extremely rare, and they hold enormous power over the world due to their understanding, learning and problem-solving abilities. Wealthy people are few (the 1.5%) and possess monstrous power over the 98.5%. Just what kind of fairy tale does OP live in? Is SV really such an alternate reality?