Did I hear mention of "the world's most dangerous idea"? Hitancrias has the right concept; we love to push ourselves to our limits, and if we use technology to extend those limits, it will be an easy break for a short time before we rediscover challenge, excitement that takes us to the brink of death, all that good stuff in life.
Remember, there are a lot of different approaches to enhancement, because as very complex beings, there is a lot that could be altered. There are alterations that are outrageously stupid and wrong, for instance
The Guilt-Free Soldier. Guilt is an important behavior regulator. Transhumanism is about extending our humanity, not detracting from it, and so the neural stuff is the danger zone. The
Center for Cognitive Liberty is a good place to go for that sort of thing, and in the AI department, the
Singularity Institute may too become very significant.
Of course, most of us prefer mody modification, to jump higher, or to soar! To be the like the Ousters of Endymion, gliding on the solar winds, not destroying our ecosystem but extending it to other worlds, warming the cold vacuum of space itself...
Remember Clark's [first] Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." We have taken many steps towards becoming the Mages of Old. We can speak to each other instantly wherever we are [telepathy], we can level mountains, we can cure plague, we can create lightning.
If this technology isn't encouraged, it will be pushed underground, developed in the hands of questionable people. Anyone who has read their fantasy books knows some basic principles
1) There shouldn't be a [techno-magically] powerful elite (we should distribute the opportunity democratically)
2) As magic can be dangerous there should always be a place where it isn't allowed (Luddite haven)
3)Some magic is good, some is bad, and most depends on the person using it (serious regulation is necessary, psychological testing etc.)
...I could go on for hours, so I'll stop here. I run a club at my university that discusses all of these things and much more. We recently had
James Hughes speak on the current politics of Transhumanism (he is the Director of the World Transhumanist Association). It's nice to know we have a Buddhist leading this movement.
More websites for those interested, not all of which anyone will agree with:
http://www.changesurfer.com/http://www.futurehi.net/http://www.xeromag.com/extropy.htmlhttp://www.cydaily.com/http://www.betterhumans.com/http://jetpress.org/http://www.nickbostrom.com/