I reject the premise that the Elite want to kill of the commoners. It is their superiority over the commoners that gives them power. If everyone is superior, no one is superior.
“ It is their superiority over the commoners that gives them power.
They like dependent commoners.
They hate independent, thinking commoners - especially those that question them.
Marxists have always killed them off.
Study history. The fascists have a legacy of internecine warfare in the best of times. That will not change.
They each want to be the last one standing.
They each believe their superiority is inherent. Any invidious comparison is against _anyone_ else.
The transhumanist goal is to eventually uploaded to the cloud and then downloaded into a series of clones or android bodies, as they wish. Each of them a god and all throughout human history, the gods of each culture live in an unending soap opera of contention, vying for dominance.
Altered Carbon is a facsimile of their end game, if they are successful.