John Niman

John Niman is an Affiliate Scholar, and a J.D. Candidate at the William S. Boyd School of Law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and blogs at boydfuturist.wordpress.com and hplusmagazine.com. He shares his enthusiasm for transhumanism and technology with the law school through presentations as part of the William S. Boyd Health Law Society. John recently completed a lengthy academic paper exploring the legal definition of personhood under United States law in which he argues that personhood is not restricted to human beings currently, and ought to be based on a set of cognitive criteria rather than human DNA and biological events like quickening and birth. He hopes to push this legal argument further in a forthcoming paper where he will further argue that once machines achieve a degree of sentience such that they can meet these criteria, they too ought to be considered people under the law and, potentially, citizens of the United States.

John graduated magna cum laude from UNLV in 2008, earning his B.A. in philosophy with a minor in business law. After law school, he intends to continue exploring the ethics of transhumanist technology and merge his philosophical and legal education with a doctorate in public policy or bioethics.

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Blog

boydfuturist

Prosthetic Technology and Human Enhancement: Benefits, Concerns and Regulatory Schemes (Part One)

Mormon Transhumanist Association Presentation

Prosthetic Technology Presentation

Cyborg Possibilities – The Arms and Legs (Part Three)

Cyborg Possibilities – The Torso and Skin (Part Two)

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Articles

"Prosthetic Technology and Human Enhancement: Benefits, Concerns and Regulatory Schemes Pt3"   Ethical Technology  May 9, 2013

"Prosthetic Technology and Human Enhancement: Benefits, Concerns and Regulatory Schemes Pt2"   Ethical Technology  May 5, 2013

"Prosthetic Technology and Human Enhancement: Benefits, Concerns and Regulatory Schemes Pt1"   Ethical Technology  May 2, 2013

"Cyborg Possibilities – The Arms and Legs (Part Three)"   boydfuturist.wordpress.com  Feb 10, 2013

"Cyborg Possibilities – The Torso and Skin (Part 2)"   boydfuturist.wordpress.com  Feb 4, 2013

"Cyborg Possibilities – The Head (Part One)"   boydfuturist  Feb 2, 2013

"Why Lance Armstrong’s Doping Doesn’t Matter"   http://boydfuturist.wordpress.com/  Jan 20, 2013

"GMOs: The Future Of Food"   boydfuturist  Jan 7, 2013

"The Mailbag: First Contact"   boydfuturist  Dec 30, 2012

"Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality and their impact on the law."   boydfuturist  Dec 29, 2012

"Rise of the Robot"   BoydFuturist  Sep 11, 2012

"Some Brief Thoughts On Immortality"   BoydFuturist  Aug 28, 2012

"Neat Cell Phone Tricks"   BoydFuturist  Jul 18, 2012

"The Future Is Bright: Some Musings On Solar Power"   BoydFuturist  Jul 8, 2012

"Rebuilding The Human Body"   BoydFuturist  May 31, 2012

"Musings On Robot Sex Dolls and Companions"   BoydFuturist  May 18, 2012

"Synthetic Life, Blood Vessel Printing, Jaw Transplants, and other Medical Breakthroughs"   BoydFuturist  May 13, 2012

"Transhumanism and Eugenics"   BoydFuturist  Apr 8, 2012

"Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs"   BoydFuturist  Mar 20, 2012

"Improving Biology"   BoydFuturist  Mar 1, 2012

"Why Bad Arguments Suck"   BoydFuturist  Feb 23, 2012

"Automated Cars: Redux"   BoydFuturist  Feb 9, 2012