Perhaps the "rising tide" takes longer to reach some than others. I hope for a more equitable, fairer future, but it's likely my outlook is somewhat jaded.

I agree, the tide analogy kinda breaks down here though. We're all familiar that it's somewhat rare that a technological advancement goes from no usage to film and wide distribution in one step. New technologies are distributed only to the rich precisely because they are time and resource intensive to develop and can only be feasibly prepared via a process which will inevitably occur costs that the majority of humans will not be able to meet. But you _need_ those first few rich people, because the money they put in starts the feedback cycle that would not be able to start otherwise. Ideally this then begins a process of optimization which gradually allows these products to become available to everyone.

Inequality is the price of innovation, but it doesn't have to be paid forever.

Honestly I also get your take. I think it will depend on the "thing" that will enable us to live longer and healthier.

If it is something very expensive and an overnight discovery, then it is likely that a dystopian era will occur... Just imagine some kind of tyrant (as a reference to the fable!) reigning over a country for 100+ years.

But it could also be somewhat like what happened with medicine: the sum of smaller improvements, some more expensive than others, years after years.

If a tyrant reigns over a country for centuries, it's because the people there want him in power.

The major increases in human lifespan have come from public sanitation, food safety, vaccinations, antibiotics, and trauma care. The rest of medicine has had only a small impact.