Transhumanism

I recently came across this topic and read about it briefly.

Apparently the wiki page is upheld by the older staunch generation and so it apparently only gives the old view of this topic.

http://www.nickbostrom.com/ethics/values.html
Heres a random one I found and have not really read yet myself.
Mainly I wanted to talk about the effect of one of their overall goals, which is to lengthen human life considerably or even living forever through technology.

One of the main things that popped into my head on hearing of this idea of such a long life, was that eventually people will take what they have for granted.
We have no shortage of flies and spiders and it is ok to squash them whenever they are an annoyance. But Pandas are sacred because they are rare.
Certain animals become illegal to hunt and kill, based on their availability.

When I consider a future where death is less of an issue, I see also a future where life is not so important and maybe taken for granted.

But I am not sure on those thoughts.
It seems like life is so precious to us now because it can be snuffed out so easily. What happens when life is not so precious?
What if for example we could back up our whole mind into a device and live our lives through a machine. There was a film out years ago on this topic actually... Bruce Willis might have been in it.. Surrogate?
Anyway if that happened it would I am sure change societies views and ways of thinking.

I'm curious what others think of this idea and the consequences.
And I am sure some philosophers have pondered these thoughts too.
I just haven't come across them yet.