Science fiction regarding future human evolution

[Zathras]

Since this thread was brought up again...


I wanted to thank everyone for their input after I started stirring the primordal stew, so to speak.  You pointed me in directions to do a little more of my own reading.  I don't have the most organized of minds, so a little direction is always a good thing!

[Darwinist]

There is a cool article in the current Scientific American about the future of human evolution.  In fact, the whole magazine is devoted to the awesome subject of evolution this month.   Its not sci-fi but good reading none the less.

[AarrowOM]

It seems to me that Wells may have hit upon a real possibility in The Time Machine. 

Given:
Wealthier people live longer than people in poverty.
The "best and brightest" of the lower classes can move up.
Beauty, athletic ability, charisma, intelligence, and determination are valued attributes.

Then it is not only possibly but probable to have diverging evolution. 

I seem to recall a Charles Sheffield novel where there was such a seperation by class.  The rich stayed on Earth (and so everyone was an aristocrat, ultimately) while the poor left to travel the solar system and take control of human development.  If I am not mistaken, the justification was something alon the lines of the poor had nothing to lose by risking their lives in space.