Not a sales pitch, in fact I'm not a "transhumanist" myself, though I find some of the ideas around it fascinating.
I think it's pretty clear. There are various mental models of what a "human" is that include a range of capabilities and distinctive traits. Typical ideas delineating between humans and animals include use of language, ability to reason, ability to build and use tools, etc. As someone with related training you already know that all of those are actually rather blurrier than they might seem at first bluff.
The models are often implied rather than defined because of the difficulty of defining them. "What is it to be human?" is still one of those Big Not Properly Answered Questions.
These models, often implied, also include limits on our traits and capabilities: we can't breathe underwater, live forever, stop aging, remember endless facts, do arithmetic as fast as our personal computers, render multiple layers of geographical data into a coherent map image in our heads and then "think" it over to the person standing next to us.
So under the definition cited transhumanists look at limits like these (not these exact limits) -- limits that are implied in prevailing models of humanity -- and propose that they can be overcome by the application of the tools we have to hand, summarised by "reason". In overcoming them we would become "transhuman" in the sense that we "cross" some boundary of present humanity as perceived by consensus, but remain "human" in some other more profound sense that, I presume, is even more difficult to define.
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Re: transhumanism
I think it's pretty clear. There are various mental models of what a "human" is that include a range of capabilities and distinctive traits. Typical ideas delineating between humans and animals include use of language, ability to reason, ability to build and use tools, etc. As someone with related training you already know that all of those are actually rather blurrier than they might seem at first bluff.
The models are often implied rather than defined because of the difficulty of defining them. "What is it to be human?" is still one of those Big Not Properly Answered Questions.
These models, often implied, also include limits on our traits and capabilities: we can't breathe underwater, live forever, stop aging, remember endless facts, do arithmetic as fast as our personal computers, render multiple layers of geographical data into a coherent map image in our heads and then "think" it over to the person standing next to us.
So under the definition cited transhumanists look at limits like these (not these exact limits) -- limits that are implied in prevailing models of humanity -- and propose that they can be overcome by the application of the tools we have to hand, summarised by "reason". In overcoming them we would become "transhuman" in the sense that we "cross" some boundary of present humanity as perceived by consensus, but remain "human" in some other more profound sense that, I presume, is even more difficult to define.
Still clear as mud? Sorry about that :-)