[zweifuss]

I would like to know what dystopian books you have read.

I think about 50 years ago there began a slow shift from warnings of overt totalitarianism (1984, Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451) to threats of social fragmentation, economic inequality, corporate surveillance and other indirect forms of control, the resulting loss of individualism and, of course, ecological collapse. These issues seem to remain relevant for the foreseeable future.

I also believe that no one really understands how the world works, not even the elites. Incidentally, this is the most powerful argument for democracy that I know of.

[mobileturdfctry]

The one that I had in mind while writing this was a "variation on this theme". Altered Carbon (Netflix, 2018–2020), based on the 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan.

There are a number of others, though as well where the recurring theme seems to be the "evil elites" leaving the poor to fend for themselves.

Definitely agree, no one "knows" how the world works. I don't think the OP presumes anyone does. The intention in saying this was to point out that there are some (these days it seems many) who are off the mark in an almost tragic way, and have no desire to reflect / improve on this.

[zweifuss]

I haven't read that. But the search for immortality is ancient. It's in the Gilgamesh epic; Emperor Qin Shi Huang searched for it, as did many others looking for the Philosopher's Stone. Of the current wealthy researching immortality, I know quite a few without googling: Larry Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman.