What is Transhumanism?

An international intellectual and cultural movement that affirms the possibility and desirability of fundamentally transforming the human condition by developing and making widely available technologies to eliminate aging and to greatly enhance human intellectual, physical, and psychological capacities.  Transhumanist thinkers study the potential benefits and dangers of emerging technologies that could overcome fundamental human limitations, as well as study the ethical matters involved in developing and using such technologies. They predict that human beings may eventually be able to transform themselves into beings with such greatly expanded abilities as to merit the label "posthuman" Transhumanism is therefore viewed as a subset of philosophical posthuman.
The goal is to greatly speed up the process of human evolution through use of technology.  On the surface these ideals seem as if they're science fiction, but man is working vigorously to make these dreams a current day reality.  Since the dawn of man, there has always been one universal goal, to achieve a greatness that none has before.  From the scientist who is determined to find cures to diseases that have yet to be found, to the avaricious who develops new gadgets so that they may become rich.  All humans desire to achieve a greatness that has yet to be attained.  In the essence to be more than their parents & forefathers.  This is a natural desire in which is the very reason for technology itself. 
Technology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the creation and use of technical means and their interrelation with life, society, and the environment drawing upon such subjects as industrial arts, engineering, applied science, and pure science.  Its purpose is to simply make life better (or easier) for human beings.  Simple technologies like glasses have been used for centuries as a means to excel past the limitations of individuals.  In our modern world today, we have many machines that are a part of the human body, which are indented to work as if they were naturally a part of that body.  Artificial hearts & limbs are but 2 examples of these technologies which enhance our lives.
The transhumanist wishes to go further than this.  The ideal is to create a human so different & advanced from the current model that they would almost no longer be human.  The term humans 2.0 is often used to described this posthuman hybrid of man & machine.  Futurist predict that within less then 100 years most of humanity will be cyborgs, which as explained, to some extent exist today & have existed for centuries.
Here we will now discuss some of the ideals & goals.
1. IA or Intelligence Amplification- using technology to augment human intelligence.  This idea first proposed in the 1950s, states that computers will be part of our brain.  Ray Kurzweil (futurist & founder of Kurzweil) eagerly predicts the day when non-bio-intelligence will accellerate past the limits of biological intelligence.  Or plainly, when computer aided human intelligence is so advanced that the normal human intelligence becomes obsolete. 
2. BMI or Brain Machine Interface- A direct communication pathway between the brain and an external device.  A more simple explanation would be when a human can operate a machine by using his thoughts. 
3. Advanced physical bodyparts- Bionic human beings.  Like the 6 million dollar man Steve Austin (not the wrestler but an old tv show) any & every part of the human body (even the privates) can or will be able to be replaced by machinery.  This will make the human body like a pc, in which one can repair, upgrade & build to his/her liking.
4. Control of the aging process- With a long term goal of immortality for all humans, the first steps are to develop technologies that greatly slow down & reverse the process of aging so that one can be forever young, or live in their prime for decades.  An example of this would be to live healthy as a 20-30 year old when one in fact would be 80-100 years old.  Science has discovered many glands that directly cause aging in the human body, & have successfully found ways to have various animals live 2 & 3 times their normal expected lifespan.  It is only a matter of time until humans will be able to benefit from these discoveries.
5. Human Chimera- A chimera is an organism composed of two or more genetically distinct tissues, as an organism that is partly male and partly female, or an artificially produced individual having tissues of several species.  As with many glowing animals (cats, dogs, monkeys etc) man's goal is to infuse the genes of an animal with a human to make a new creature.  A human would then inherit the attributes of that animal; such as enhanced hearing, smell, being able to see in the dark, or whatever attribute that animal has.  Various experiments are being done on man & animals with the goal of creating chimeras without defect, as many of these experiments end up producing harmful defects.  Often, the human/animal hybrid is killed after the experiment in order to keep it from suffering & to keep the knowledge away from the public.
6. Child Editing- Parents will be able to determine every aspect of their newborn baby as to height, weight, skin eye & hair color, intelligence (based on a scale), athletic, artistic, even personality traits as to kindness, compassion, determination.  In this time man will be able to have the perfect baby.  No child will ever be born with defects & can be immune to any disease.  Cyber-genetics can insure that the child of the future is superior to the child of today.
These are but a few of the wonderful ways science will affect what's known as the human race over the next century and beyond.
                                                Can you imagine....
Being a human who has the genes of a dog, superhuman (bionic) body parts, & a highly advance IA nanotechnology system as part of its brain?  As technology advances those who are regular humans who don't accept this mark of technology will be left behind.  They will get tired, hungry, & age at a normal pace (or age in general), while the posthuman will no longer be a victim to these limitations.  The posthuman will not have sex with another physical being, but virtual-sex, with an ideal mate that they created having pure ecstasy every time they have intercourse.  Human reproduction will be done in a lab, so that one can order newborn babies online & edit their attributes, as to how smart, tall, athletic they will be & how fast their body repairs when damaged.  Walking into the house & not needing a key, but simply using my mind telling the doors to open & the lights to come on.  A day where your child can marry a cyborg who is half horse or owl.  A day where Chimera RIghts Activist (they exist today) will say you can't kill this half human half cow & eat him because he is still 50% human.  What a wonderful future for humans it will be.